Electric car battery manufacturers are stepping up their efforts to develop a ‘high energy density’ battery cell that can contain more energy in the same volume to keep pace with the popularity of electric cars.
According to recent industry sources, the direction of the development of electric cars is primarily to increase energy density and to compete in making the models and packs thinner for electrics cars.
Samsung SDI is currently pursuing the market by introducing the ‘Expandable Module’, an electric car battery module platform, and ‘MFM Pack’, a pack solution. Based on its advanced cell technology, they will offer a module and pack lineup that maximizes cell efficiency.
A single electric car battery module contains 12 cells and has a capacity of 2-3 kWh. The newly introduced Samsung SDI’s ‘Expansion Module’ adopts an advanced mechanism design method which accommodates more than 24 cells per module, with an energy capacity of 6~8 kWh, which is more than twice the previous capacity.
By improving the capacity to hold more cells in a single module, the number of modules in a pack can be reduced, reducing the number of connected parts and thus saving space.
When mounted on automobiles, the number of parts can be reduced compared to existing modules, and the weight and volume can also be reduced, making it a welcomed concept for automobile manufacturers. If the demand of the electric car industry was for high-performance cells in the past, it is now in the phase of assessing its performance as a module.
In addition, Samsung SDI is also taking the lead in developing tailor-made pack solutions to meet the various needs of automobile manufacturers. The Multi-Functional Module Pack (MFM), unveiled by Samsung SDI last year, enables the driver to freely adjust the number of modules to produce a variety of travel distances. This will make it easier for automakers to reduce and optimize the space occupied by batteries in the design of electric cars.
A Samsung SDI official said, “We are also working on developing new solutions by applying a variety of ideas and technologies to the planning and design of modules and packs, including the form in which cells can be mounted directly without modules. As electric cars become more popular in the near future, the form of the packs will be diversified so that automobile companies can design various electrics cars. Furthermore, to prepare for this future, we will open the era of ‘Battery Design’ in which cells, modules, and packs are arranged in various forms.”
