- Guardian firm of Dodge, Ram, Jeep envisions an exhaust system for EVs
- Would establish battery thermal runaway, may assist forestall ensuing fireplace by treating gases
- Dodge Charger Daytona EV already makes the sound of an ICE exhaust system
Exhaust techniques take away the byproducts of inner combustion, so they could appear superfluous in electrical autos. However Stellantis may disagree with that.
On Jan. 16, america Patent and Trademark Workplace (USPTO) revealed a patent submitting from the automaker (initially filed in 2023) for an electrical automobile exhaust system that, Stellantis claims, may assist forestall EV battery fires—or management the extent of their injury.
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 embrace hydrogen, in addition to hydrocarbons like methane, ethane, ethylene, acetylene, propane, cyclopropane, and butane, in line with the automaker.
Stellantis EV exhaust system patent picture
Eradicating these gases may forestall 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 techniques, 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 totally meant for sound and vibration.
Within the battery exhaust system, gases and they might move via “a plurality of remedy zones for chemically treating the stream of gases to eradicate or at the least scale back the variety of numerous chemical species from the stream,” 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 through battery administration system parameters. They’re additionally tightly sealed, with liquid cooling techniques, and monitored on the module or cell degree in a approach that may isolate a faulty portion of the pack. So whereas it is stunning to see an automaker specializing in an end result that its engineers have probably gone to nice lengths to keep away from, this is not the one uncommon resolution 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 resolution could be extra about containing injury, and probably making autos safer for first responders to method, than forestall runaways within the first place.
Hearth threat 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 injury they’ll inflict on different highway customers.
