Cell selection

The first approach to solving this problem should be to avoid it if possible through cell selection. Batteries should be constructed from matched cells, preferably from the same manufacturing batch. Testing can be employed to classify and select cells into groups with tighter tolerance spreads to minimise variability within groups.

Large versus small cells

The high energy storage capacities needed for traction and other high power battery applications can be provided by using large high capacity cells or with large numbers of small cells connected in parallel to give the same capacity as the larger cells. In both cases the large cells, or the parallel blocks of small cells, must be connected in series to provide the required high battery voltage.

Using large cells keeps the interconnections between cells to a minimum allowing simpler monitoring and control electronics and lower assembly costs. Until electric vehicles conquer a substantial percentage of the transportation market, the large cells they need will continue to be made in relatively small quantities, often with semi-automatic or manual production methods, resulting in high costs, wide process variability and the consequent wide performance tolerance spreads. When the cells are used in a serial chain, cell balancing is essential to equalise the stress on the cells, caused by these manufacturing variances, to avoid premature cell failures.

Safety

There are also safety issues associated with large capacity cells. A single 200 AmpHour Lithium Cobalt cell typically used in EV applications stores 2,664,000 Joules of energy. If a cell fails or is short circuited or damaged in an accident, this energy is suddenly released, often resulting in an explosion and an intense fire, known euphemistically as an “event” in the battery industry. When such an event occurs in a battery pack there is a strong likelihood that the fire and pressure damage resulting from a cell failure will cause neighbouring cells to fail in a similar way, ultimately affecting all of the cells in the pack with disastrous consequences.

Using small cells connected in parallel to provide the same voltage and capacity as the larger cells results in many more interconnections, greater assembly costs and possibly more complex control electronics. Small, cylindrical, 2 or 3 AmpHour cells, such as the industry standard 18650 used in consumer electronics applications, are however made in volumes of hundreds of millions per year in much better controlled production facilities without manual intervention on highly automated equipment. The upside is that unit costs are consequently very low and reliability is much higher. When large numbers of cells are connected in a parallel block, the performance of the block will tend towards the process average of the component cells and the self balancing effect will tend to keep it there. The parallel blocks will still need to be connected in series to provide the higher battery voltage but the tolerance spread of the blocks in the series chain will be less than the tolerance spread of the alternative large capacity cells, leaving the cell balancing function with less work to do.

Safety

On the safety front, the more reliable low capacity cells are much less likely to fail and if a failure does occur, the stored energy released by any cell is only one hundredth of the energy released by a 200 AmpHour cell. This lower energy release is much easier to contain and the likelihood of the event propagating through the pack is much reduced or eliminated. This is perhaps the most important advantage of designs using lower capacity cells.