EV fires are less common than those in internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.
So says an IDTechEx report Fire Protection Materials for Electric Vehicle Batteries 2023-2033 which studies fire protection and thermal runaway propagation limiting materials for electric cars, buses, vans, trucks, scooters, and motorcycles.
Ceramics, mica, aerogels, foams, encapsulants, coatings, and phase change materials (PCMs) are included in the report by Dr James Edmondson and Dr Richard Collins.
The report explains EV fires are less common than in their ICE counterparts – in both occurrence and in terms of rate per kilometres travelled.
“However infrequent, it is extremely important to protect the vehicle’s occupants and prolong the time for a fire to exit the battery pack for as long as possible,” the report says.
“The key method of achieving this is the proper choice and deployment of fire protection materials throughout the battery pack. The rapidly growing EV market across segments beyond just cars such as buses, trucks, vans, scooters, and motorcycles all present great and varied opportunities for material suppliers to enable safer battery packs.”
IDTechEx’s report analyses trends in battery design, safety regulations, and how these will impact fire protection materials. The report benchmarks materials directly and in application within EV battery packs. The materials covered include ceramic blankets/sheets (and other non-wovens), mica, aerogels, coatings (intumescent and other), encapsulants, encapsulating foams, compression pads, phase change materials, and several other materials. Ten-year market forecasts are included by material and vehicle category.
The report notes the EV market has yet to converge on a single battery design at any level.
“One only has to consider the cell format where prismatic took around 55% of the car market in 2021 with the rest split fairly evenly between cylindrical and pouch.
“The thermal management strategy also varies between manufacturers, with cold plates beneath the cells being the most popular option, but sidewall-cooled and air-cooled batteries also present significant adoption.
“Many manufacturers are also moving towards a cell-to-pack design where module housings (and a host of other materials) are removed, leading to improved energy density but potentially more challenging thermal runaway propagation prevention.
“These design choices all greatly impact the choice and deployment of fire protection materials and hence are covered in IDTechEx’s report to aid in determining material demands.”
The report cites some common choices such as ceramic blankets, mica sheets and aerogels (Aspen Aerogels has a supply agreement with GM for its Ultium battery pack).
IDTechEx says the many agents are now combining this functionality with fire protection to provide a multifunctional solution, adding a host of materials which can aid in the safety of battery packs by preventing the propagation of thermal runaway and/or containing fire events.
“The variety of battery design philosophies presents opportunities for many fire protection materials and their suppliers; in fact, IDTechEx is predicting a 13-fold increase in yearly demand for fire protection materials in EV batteries by 2033 in comparison to 2022.”