- Guardian firm of Dodge, Ram, Jeep envisions an exhaust system for EVs
- Would determine 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 programs take away the byproducts of inner combustion, so they could appear superfluous in electrical automobiles. However Stellantis would possibly disagree with that.
On Jan. 16, the USA Patent and Trademark Workplace (USPTO) revealed a patent submitting from the automaker (initially filed in 2023) for an electrical car 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, in accordance with 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 programs, in addition to all-electric powertrains, there is definitely room for the mandatory plumbing.
Stellantis even designed an exhaust system of kinds for the Dodge Charger Daytona EV, to reproduce the V-8 rumble of previous Chargers—though that system is fully meant for sound and vibration.
Within the battery exhaust system, gases and they’d go via “a plurality of remedy zones for chemically treating the stream of gases to remove or not less than scale back the variety of varied chemical species from the stream,” 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 through battery administration system parameters. They’re additionally tightly sealed, with liquid cooling programs, and monitored on the module or cell degree in a means 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 doubtless gone to nice lengths to keep away from, this is not the one uncommon answer proposed for lessening the chance 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 car 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.
Fireplace threat has led to a number of massive EV remembers, however in 2023 the Insurance coverage Institute for Freeway Security (IIHS) mentioned 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.
