GM considers odd EV battery cell shapes for higher cooling

Because it seeks to handle production issues with its current Ultium battery cells, General Motors could also be considering something much more complex.

First spotted by Motor1, a recently filed GM patent application discusses battery cells with Lego-like shapes meant to accommodate cooling channels. As an alternative of constructing battery modules out of a solid mass of cells and installing a cooling plate underneath, as GM does with its current EVs, gaps between the cells would help improve cooling and extend battery life, the automaker claims in the appliance.

GM also claims the same effect might be achieved with cells with a more conventional rectangular shape. On this version, cells of various length and thickness could be arranged to create an H-shaped channel within the module to help cooling.

Either design would likely require GM to stick to roughly rectangular pouch cells, just like what it’s currently using, quite than the cylindrical cells Lucid, Rivian, and Tesla claim have some thermal benefits, and that BMW is now adopting as well.

Automakers don’t all the time find yourself using the ideas they patent, so it’s unclear if this alternative type of battery cooling will appear in a production EV. GM has said that it’s flexible in its battery cells, but manufacturing nonuniform cells would likely add to the challenges GM is already experiencing in ramping up production of its Ultium EVs.

GM selected its current large-format pouch cells for being especially easy to make, however the automaker’s experience thus far might suggest otherwise. Based on a recent Bloomberg report, the automaker goals to construct 200,000 to 300,000 EVs this 12 months. That may be big improvement over the roughly 14,000 Ultium EVs sold in 2023, but still well wanting original estimates, Bloomberg notes.

General Motors Lego-like battery cell patent image

The report claims GM “bypassed its own best practices” so as to start Ultium battery-pack production quickly. For instance, it skipped the standard test of automated assembly line equipment, installing the equipment in its “Factory Zero” in Detroit without that testing. And it details battery-related fires at Factory Zero, including one which began after a forklift pierced a battery pack.

GM has also been plagued with software issues, which put deliveries of the Chevrolet Blazer EV on hold for months.

GM executives think the worst of those issues at the moment are behind the corporate, and that it’s crawling out of the “production hell” phase of the Ultium ramp, in response to Bloomberg. But has GM gotten enough control over these issues to start out moving on to recent cell configurations?