DEsign and MOdelling for improved BAttery Safety and Efficiency

Project Information

DEMOBASE

Grant agreement ID: 769900

DOI

10.3030/769900

Project closed

EC signature date 28 August 2017

Start date 1 October 2017

End date 30 November 2020

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 7 451 520,00

EU contribution

€ 7 451 520,00

Coordinated by

SAFT
France

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - DEMOBASE (DEsign and MOdelling for improved BAttery Safety and Efficiency)

Reporting period: 2019-04-01 to 2020-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Electric mobility is a reality we can experience on our roads and cities. Electromobility is moving forward, driven by drastic cost reductions, higher performances and improved availability to support new business models of autonomous driving passenger cars and new vehicle fleets. DEMOBASE falls within this context with the main objectives to cut down development and testing efforts for e-drivetrains at least by a factor 2 and to improve their efficiency by 20%. Safety will be fully managed and new concepts developed for fleet applications.

DEMOBASE is composed of 11 leading European partners with activities ranging from cells to vehicle to recycling. The main gain at vehicle level will come from global optimization taking into account interaction of the different specialties.

To secure project deliveries and reinforce collaborations which are an innovation key factor, DEMOBASE will be an original closed-loop project. In a first loop of the EV development, building blocks and their integration processes will be investigated and their efficiency assessed using Key Performance Indicators. Then the most efficient bricks and processes will demonstrate their added value in a second step in 6 months run starting from new high performances cells to operational EV. The DEMOBASE EV will be then evaluated on tracks.

Demobase actions led to fulfil the different GV7 targeted impacts:

• Reduction of development and testing efforts for e-drivetrains by 40%
- Battery ageing model: Goal is achieved. Possibility to forecast future ageing on the base of 4 months of testing is demonstrated for the cells with composite SiC anode. Accuracy of predictions is 1-2 %. => Reduction time of 35%
- New cell design based on electrochemical model compare to 10 days for exhaustive cell characterisation by test => Reduction time of 75%
- Battery pack design by HIL for a new cell chemistry:
- Estimation for pure simulation approach (SOA): human time 3 days; test time 3 months; simulation time < 1 day
- Estimation fore HIL approach: human time 3 days; test time 1 week
--- Gain of pure calendar time of about 90%
- Abuse test simulation: time & cost reduction at Cell level: 92% / Module level: 88% / Pack level: 80%

• Improved efficiency of e-drivetrains under real driving conditions by 20%, which will contribute to climate action and sustainable development objectives.
- Energy consumption in the WLTC cycle is of the order of 8.5 kWh/100km or 85 Wh/km (Measure EV-Consumption based on test track driving cycle) => 15% reduction

Achieved thanks to weight reduction activities and high efficiency components among with:
o Body-frame weights 85 kg (excluding door rings and axel frame) which can be estimated as a 25-28% weight reduction in comparison to the standard approach
o New wheel hubs, using SHSS tubes in place of casted iron, have been demonstrated to overcome conventional performances despite weight reduction to 2.38 kg instead of 5.62 kg of a cast iron hub. A 42% weight reduction has been reached.
o Includes highly efficient motor/inverter from TELL EC project

• Improved powertrain safety for all types of electrified vehicles by a factor of 10 with no additional expenses in safety studies.
- New areas for safety: Fail operational battery pack architecture + Fail aware function: DEMOBASE parallel architecture + detection of cell failure in cell cluster by Machine learning method.
- Safety at no additional cost: Safety battery architecture at no additional cost: Illustration on INERIS simulation below based on measurement done during abuse testing, compulsory to follow safety standards. Additional measuring information allow safety simulation activities.

Demobase project finally participates to the battery – BEV activity growth in Europe. Improved MOSFETs based switch for battery pack by Infineon; SW product by Modelon; BEV micro-factory by I-FEVS; and in the ecosystem, creation of Automotive Cells Company Joint Venture between SAFT, PSA and OPEL.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The activities of the 1st project period focused on the elaboration of the requirements for the battery (aging, BMS, etc.), recycling, wheels, chassis and the definition of the software platform.
Based on this, activities in the 2nd led to the following results:

WP1 System requirements, use cases and validation methodologies
The first work package was finished in April 2018. The requirements for battery (aging, BMS, etc.), recycling, wheels, chassis and the definition of Software platform and of preliminary risks were completed

WP2 Simulation and modelling for seamless integration
This work package started in November 2017 and is still going on. Work on Model testing toolkit and FMI Composer integration has started as well as the first Amesim vehicle model simulation.

WP3 Safety
The Cell safety and aging characterization is ongoing. The first definition of abuse test procedure and measured parameters are partly specified.

WP4 Integration
Starts in January 2018 and is still ongoing. Development of the ECU board that will communicate with the BMS and the components are defined as well as the design parameters for vehicle´s wheel development.

WP5 Validation and KPI
The Validation and KPI work package started in April 2019.

WP6 Dissemination and Exploitation
Multiple dissemination activities were performed by the partners such as presentations at conferences, workshops and articles for scientific and non-scientific journals. All publications were uploaded to the Zenodo repository for open access as well as to the DEMOBASE website: www.demobase-project.eu/dissemination/

WP7 Management and Coordination
The project has been initialized, including the setup of the project bodies and the initiation of the internal management and communication processes. The project progress, the quality of the project results as well as the project risks were monitored with respect to the project plan by the Coordinator and the General Assembly. Regular technical meetings ensured a continuous communication between the partners for an optimal exploitation of synergies

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

DEMOBASE is developing an overall methodology based on massive digitalization and seamless processes to sharply faster Electric Vehicle (EV) development time, to improved safety and to lower cost, specifically of battery systems and chassis from subcomponent to recycling.
Today EV vehicle safety concept is based on fail safe approach, the project targets for the battery system fail operational feature. It means that in case of cell failure or thermal runaway, the battery will sustain the EV performances. This concept is a main added value for the coming vehicle fleets for which availability is a key factor.
Today chassis development required very large investment with stamped steel technology whereas DEMOBASE vehicle will cut development cost by a factor 10 using a tubular structure while keeping the highest European safety standard for M1 class vehicles.
DEMOBASE is an original closed-loop project. In a first loop of the EV development, building blocks and their integration processes will be assessed using Key Performance Indicators. Then the most efficient bricks and processes will demonstrate their added value in a second step in 6 months run starting from new high performances cells to operational EV.

DEMOBASE extended logotype