ARPA-E hosted a workshop entitled, “Crash-Safe Energy Storage Systems For Electric Vehicles,” on Monday, November 12 and Tuesday, November 13, 2012 in Denver, CO.

This workshop brought together thought leaders from distinct science and engineering communities to collectively identify key needs, develop new ideas, and formulate potentially transformational technological approaches to crash-safe, high-performance energy storage systems for electric vehicles.

The focus of the workshop was to explore alternatives to the current battery pack designs that employ tightly packed battery cells in rigid structural enclosures that add weight and cost and do not contribute to vehicle structural function. Specifically, ARPA-E was interested in:

• Discussing opportunities that overcome safety and the corresponding cost barriers to electric vehicle market adoption, such as 1.) energy storage chemistries and architectures that offer intrinsic safety (e.g. impossible to internally short or safe even when shorted battery packs) and 2.) battery-pack/vehicle-level architectures that offer intrinsic safety after mechanical impact and/or aid in managing impulse energy during a vehicle crash.
• Assessing vehicle level benefits of employing an abuse tolerant and potentially multi-functional energy storage system, e.g., minimizing structural reinforcement and employing new vehicle designs with superior safety and improved performance over state of the art approaches.
• Addressing the availability of tools and understandings for rational designs of materials and structures for crash- and short-safe energy storage systems. Assessing vehicle cost considerations, and ability to deploy new technologies in existing and future vehicle platforms.

Information garnered from this workshop will assist ARPA-E leadership in targeting key technology areas relevant to the ARPA-E mission.

View the full Workshop Agenda (pdf)

Day 1:

• Dr. Pramod Khargonekar, ARPA-E - Introduction
• Dr. Ping Liu, ARPA-E - Crash-Safe Energy Storage Systems for Electric Vehicles
• Dr. Alvaro Masias, Ford Motor Co. - xEV Vehicle Designs (pdf)
• Dr. John Warner, Magna E-car - Battery Pack Designs (pdf)
• Dr. Elham Sahraei, MIT - Mechanical Properties of Li-ion Cells (pdf)
• Prof. Leif E. Asp - Multifunctional Energy Storage (pdf)
• Prof. Se-Hee Lee, CU-Boulder - Solid State Cell Chemistries and Designs (pdf)
• Phil Black, EOS Energy Storage - Aqueous Cell Chemistries and Designs (pdf)

Day 2:

• Dr. Ilan Gur, ARPA-E - Breakout #1: Future of Abuse Tolerant Electrochemical Cell Chemistries and Designs (pdf)
• Dr. Bryan Willson, ARPA-E - Breakout #2: Moving the Pack Out of the Box (pdf)
• Dr. Pramod Khargonekar, ARPA-E - Breakout #3: Multifunctional Energy Storage/Vehicle Structures (pdf)