A Study on Traction Battery Mounting Arrangements in Different EV Buses 2024-26-0121

Adaption of EV powertrains in existing vehicle architecture has created many unique challenges in meeting performance, reliability, safety, ease of manufacturing & serviceability at optimum cost. Mounting of large size battery packs in existing vehicle architecture is one of them.

Specific energy & the energy density of Lithium ion batteries are very lower compared to Diesel & Petrol, which requires high volume & weight for equivalent energy storage. For movement of many passengers and to ensure sufficient range EV buses typically needs large amount of energy and for storage of same bigger size battery packs are required. These large size batteries directly affect vehicle architecture, seating layout, ease of assembly & serviceability. Moreover the heavy mass of batteries directly influences vehicle dynamics & performance characteristics such as vehicle handling, roll & NVH. The most important consideration in design of EV vehicles in general and buses in specific is safety. Protection of battery in case of accidents, roll over, fire etc is of prime importance for safety of passengers. Thus traction battery mounting strategy has great influence on overall vehicle.

This paper provides an overview of the different types of traction battery mounting strategy used in electric buses globally, comparison of them, advantages and limitations.