Primary and Secondary Vehicle Lightweighting Achieved by Acting on the Battery Thermal Management System

Global warming and air pollution are the main factors influencing international, national, and local strategies for the transition towards clean technologies to reduce polluting and climate-altering emissions. A further reduction of the latter can be achieved, with the same powertrain technology, by reducing vehicle consumption. One technique is to lighten the vehicle. The goal of this feasibility study is to act on the battery thermal management system to achieve vehicle lightweighting. Specifically, a sedan car with active-cooled batteries was considered as a reference case, and primary lightweighting was achieved through the use of passive cooling methods, i.e., air and Phase Change Material (PCM) cooling systems, followed by secondary lightweighting to re-establish the target range of the reference vehicle by downsizing the batteries. The air-cooled system leads to greater lightweighting, but its field of application is limited to vehicles operating in fleets; this obstacle can be overcome by using a PCM.