- Guardian firm of Dodge, Ram, Jeep envisions an exhaust system for EVs
- Would establish battery thermal runaway, might 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 may appear superfluous in electrical automobiles. However Stellantis may disagree with that.
On Jan. 16, the US 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 forestall 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, based on the automaker.
Stellantis EV exhaust system patent picture
Eradicating these gases might forestall thermal runaway from escalating into fires, the automaker causes, in addition to vent strain 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 required 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 solely supposed for sound and vibration.
Within the battery exhaust system, gases and they’d cross by way of “a plurality of remedy zones for chemically treating the circulation of gases to remove or at the least cut back the variety of numerous chemical species from the circulation,” Stellantis says within the submitting—bringing to thoughts some similarities to the catalytic converters utilized in combustion automobiles.
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 techniques, and monitored on the module or cell stage 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 seemingly 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 could be extra about containing harm, and probably making automobiles safer for first responders to strategy, than forestall runaways within the first place.
Hearth threat has led to a number of massive EV recollects, however in 2023 the Insurance coverage Institute for Freeway Security (IIHS) mentioned that, as a security concern, it is outweighed (no pun supposed) by the bulk of many present EVs and the harm they’ll inflict on different highway customers.
