WAE Technologies’ new structural battery pack at BSE 2023

Held between 23^rd-25^th May 2023 at Messe Stuttgart, in Germany, Battery Show Europe is Europe's largest trade fair and conference for advanced battery manufacturing and technology, with over 10,500 attendees.

Visitors will be able to see the global launch of the company’s new Cell2Pack demonstrator, a structural battery pack system, which features a host of advances which combine to improve electric vehicle structural stiffness, lower weight and improve overall range, at low production volumes.

A Lead Engineer of Battery Integration at WAE, Sian Wyles, will be delivering a presentation on this innovative new design, while the WAE stand will also feature the battery show debut of Elysia – Battery Intelligence from WAE is a new offering which delivers the latest in battery software to the mass market.

Cell2Pack

Cell2Pack is a specific battery design for the automotive niche market and low volume applications of under 10,000 vehicles per annum. The cells are integrated directly into the battery pack without the need for individual module enclosures, therefore increasing volumetric energy density and improving vehicle range within a given package. To achieve this highly integrated solution, the cells become a load-bearing element and provide a load path directly through the battery pack from base-to-lid, and onwards into the vehicle body.

The Cell2Pack system incorporates a number of advanced technical features in order to provide an optimum battery design with maximum capability including:

• Large Format Cylindrical Cells - market trends show that there’s now a move towards larger format cylindrical 46xx cells offering higher power and energy density, as well as increased fast charging capability due to reducing internal resistance.
• Inflatable Side Cooling – Flexible and inflatable side cooling ribbons offer double-sided cooling to the cells. The adaptive flexible shape ensures close contact with the cells without the need for gap fillers or thermal interface material, therefore improving heat transfer from the cells to the coolant. Manufacturing is also simplified with no need to attach the cooling ribbons to the cells.
• Bent Extruded Case – One continuous 3D bent extrusion forms three sides of the battery case with a clip-fit panel base. This design enables the package length and width to the scaled to the customer’s requirements without the need for high-cost tooling changes, ideal for low volumes.

Presentation on battery design and management

Sian Wyles, who is a Lead Engineer of Battery Integration at WAE, will deliver a presentation at the conference revealing how WAE has innovated key battery system sub-assemblies and component designs to mitigate some of the increased risks in the Cell2Pack design, such as higher development costs, and industrialisation challenges. WAE has formed new alliances in the supply chain to deliver flexibility, and increased capability in supplying such highly integrated systems. Sian will be giving her presentation at the show on 24^th Wednesday May between 15:20 and 15:40.

Elysia – Battery intelligence from WAE

Elysia is a battery intelligence offering from WAE, bringing the very latest in battery software to the mass automotive and e-mobility market. Drawing on more than a decade of high-performance battery expertise from WAE - which has designed, developed, and manufactured the world’s most advanced batteries for multiple sectors, from global electric motorsport programmes to electric hypercars and mining trucks - Elysia brings game-changing insight to the burgeoning global electric vehicle space.

Elysia is the first mass-market software offering from WAE, combining a suite of innovations that can unlock the true potential of any battery. It features state-of-the-art embedded and cloud-based products which, together, provide customers – including global automotive OEMs, fleet operators and battery asset financiers – with not only unprecedented access to battery insights but the ability to manage, optimise and enhance performance across the battery’s entire lifecycle, both in the vehicle and in ‘second life’ applications such as stationary grid storage. The Elysia team will be present throughout the show on the WAE stand.

Craig Wilson, WAE Technologies CEO, said: “We are proud to be exhibiting at this year’s Battery Show Europe, in Stuttgart. As the largest event in the advanced battery manufacturing and technology industry, it’s the perfect place for us to be showcasing the very best of WAE’s innovations in cutting-edge electrification. With Cell2Pack we have an advanced new structural battery design that has huge positive implications for the low-volume automotive sector, while with our new Elysia battery intelligence offering, we are bringing game-changing battery software to the mass market.”