32 May/June 2025 | E-Mobility Engineering Moving to cell-to-chassis architecture means significant changes to EV structures and materials, finds Nick Flaherty Cell-to-chassis architecture Manufacturers of electric vehicles (EVs) are placing increased emphasis on pack design optimisation. Moving from modules to packs and even to direct integration with the chassis can promote lighter weight, less space, higher energy density, and lower material and assembly costs. However, this drive toward cell-tochassis (C2C) architecture comes with a range of engineering challenges with respect to cooling, materials and assembly processes. Cell-to-pack (CTP) designs eliminate the housing of battery modules and bond individual cells directly to the cooling plate, but designers are now exploring bonding cells directly to the vehicle chassis for C2C architectures. This is driving the need for new thermally conductive adhesive technology that can operate in more demanding environmental and mechanical performance conditions but also satisfy safety considerations. Thermally conductive urethane adhesives enable direct bonding of prismatic battery cells to aluminium cooling plates with these specific requirements in mind. Current battery pack configurations are driven by highly stringent safety standards coupled with affordable and abundant supply chains. Such battery pack configurations consist of numerous battery modules, each of which contains groups of individual battery cells, and this approach enables control, monitoring and servicing of discrete battery modules. It also provides the batteries with additional crash and environmental protection, incorporates greater electrical isolation between and around modules and, inturn, helps prevent fire propagation in the event of thermal runaway. The Bedrock cell-to-chassis architecture (Image courtesy of CATL)
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