- Mum or dad firm of Dodge, Ram, Jeep envisions an exhaust system for EVs
- Would determine battery thermal runaway, might assist stop ensuing fireplace by treating gases
- Dodge Charger Daytona EV already makes the sound of an ICE exhaust system
Exhaust methods take away the byproducts of inside combustion, so they may appear superfluous in electrical autos. However Stellantis would possibly disagree with that.
On Jan. 16, america Patent and Trademark Workplace (USPTO) printed a patent submitting from the automaker (initially filed in 2023) for an electrical automobile exhaust system that, Stellantis claims, might assist stop EV battery fires—or management the extent of their harm.
When batteries overheat—or expertise thermal runaway, in engineering parlance—they’ll launch flammable gases that then ignite within the presence of the excessive temperatures generated by the overheating batteries, Stellantis explains within the doc. These gases can embody hydrogen, in addition to hydrocarbons like methane, ethane, ethylene, acetylene, propane, cyclopropane, and butane, in response to the automaker.
Stellantis EV exhaust system patent picture
Eradicating these gases might stop thermal runaway from escalating into fires, the automaker causes, in addition to vent stress from the battery pack. With Stellantis’ 4 new modular STLA platforms designed to accommodate combustion engines and their exhaust methods, in addition to all-electric powertrains, there is definitely room for the mandatory plumbing.
Stellantis even designed an exhaust system of types for the Dodge Charger Daytona EV, to reproduce the V-8 rumble of previous Chargers—though that system is completely meant for sound and vibration.
Within the battery exhaust system, gases and they’d cross by “a plurality of remedy zones for chemically treating the circulate of gases to remove or at the least scale back the variety of varied chemical species from the circulate,” Stellantis says within the submitting—bringing to thoughts some similarities to the catalytic converters utilized in combustion autos.
Stellantis EV exhaust system patent picture
Fashionable batteries in most EVs are rigidly managed by way of battery administration system parameters. They’re additionally tightly sealed, with liquid cooling methods, and monitored on the module or cell degree in a method that may isolate a faulty portion of the pack. So whereas it is shocking to see an automaker specializing in an consequence that its engineers have doubtless gone to nice lengths to keep away from, this is not the one uncommon answer proposed for lessening the danger of EV battery fires. In 2019 the automotive provider Bosch proposed utilizing pyrotechnics to rapidly sever electrical connections between battery pack and the remainder of the automobile if thermal runaway happens. Both answer can be extra about containing harm, and doubtlessly making autos safer for first responders to method, than stop runaways within the first place.
Fireplace danger has led to a number of massive EV remembers, however in 2023 the Insurance coverage Institute for Freeway Security (IIHS) stated that, as a security concern, it is outweighed (no pun meant) by the bulk of many present EVs and the harm they’ll inflict on different highway customers.
