Industry Voices | The Opportunity to Give Electric Vehicles a Soul

Against the backdrop of uncertainty in the electric vehicle market, the importance of OEMs being able to rapidly develop competitive products at a high cost-performance ratio has never been greater. Typically, whether manufacturers can achieve this goal largely depends on a core component—the battery pack, which usually accounts for 30% to 50% of the total cost of an electric vehicle.

As all OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers in this field know, electric vehicle batteries are complex to design and influence almost all major vehicle characteristics. Cell chemistry, form factor, size, weight, adhesives, sealants: each requires careful consideration to ensure the vehicle's range, efficiency, performance, and safety meet standards.

The battery pack design, which ultimately relies on hundreds or thousands of cells working together, must be validated and truly integrated into the overall vehicle design. But in reality, this is where many manufacturers go wrong.

A battery pack should not simply be a matter of forcing an off-the-shelf solution into the vehicle design; it must be developed in sync with the vehicle from the very start of the project to optimize both. The battery pack not only determines the efficiency of every part of the vehicle but also its price; this complexity is why developing an electric vehicle battery pack is often the single most expensive item in overall vehicle development.

For this reason, electric vehicle batteries are still decades away from commoditization. The level of customization required to create a competitive product is quite high. This contrasts sharply with batteries in consumer electronics, such as smartphones, which typically use only one or two different cells rather than the hundreds found in electric vehicles, so customization is mainly in chemistry rather than mechanical design.

The same applies to grid-scale stationary energy storage systems. These applications hardly need optimization of shape, size, or performance; a one-size-fits-all solution suffices—usually in the form of a standard 20-foot (6.1-meter) container. They are designed for low cost and long life, without the need for the fine, customized engineering optimization required for electric vehicle battery packs.

Unlike consumer electronics and energy storage technologies, the batteries that power electric vehicles are subject to unique constraints. From power output, range, charging time, efficiency, weight, to driving dynamics, the battery pack defines every aspect of vehicle design in a way that internal combustion engines never did. No matter how skilled a vehicle dynamics engineer, structural designer, or aerodynamicist may be, they cannot "work around" a heavy, bulky, or underperforming battery pack. Therefore, from every conceivable angle, the battery pack ultimately determines the on-road satisfaction of electric vehicle drivers.

And this is precisely the huge opportunity for OEMs: to give electric vehicles the personality many believe they lack. By conceiving, customizing, and ultimately co-creating the battery pack design in tandem with the vehicle, manufacturers can find solutions that perfectly fit a specific vehicle concept. The ability to seamlessly balance weight, size, and energy density according to chassis and dynamic needs offers OEMs a prime opportunity to unleash creativity—unlocking new levels of performance and, more importantly, doing so in a way that gives each electric vehicle a unique identity.

The opportunity to create competitive products, redefine perceptions, and shape compelling personalities for sustainable vehicles is invaluable, and it also means that battery pack customization must be easily accessible to OEMs.

When developing electric vehicles, small and medium-sized and niche OEMs face a dilemma with battery packs: highly customized solutions or off-the-shelf products. The former is extremely time-consuming to develop, often costing over $30 million; the latter offers lower performance and often fails to meet requirements or targets. Neither option provides a viable path for low-volume OEMs to launch trendy electric vehicles. Given that more than 90% of OEMs globally fall into this category, this situation urgently needs to change.

Some always doubt whether a vehicle can have a soul—but as numerous models have proven over the decades, this is not the case. If we have the opportunity to give electric vehicles a unique personality, this is certainly an opportunity we should seize.

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