American legacy automaker General Motors seems to be exploring a Tetris-like battery structure to improve cooling channels’ efficiency, as per the patent filing.
Patent filing
General Motors reportedly filed a patent for a new electric vehicle battery layout, shifting away from the traditional rectangular and cylindrical batteries.
As you can see from the photos, the new battery design has a strange shape similar to that of the once-popular online game Tetris.
Motor1.com noted that the document is still an application. The United States Patent and Trademark Office published it in late February of this year, and it has a recent filing date, too.
Significance
General Motors explained the cooling process of electric vehicle battery cells, at least in its models’ case. For instance, the Hummer EV cools its battery through a cooling plate at the bottom of the cells on a module-by-module basis.
According to GM, this process causes uneven cooling that eventually leads to early battery degradation.
In that sense, GM filed a patent for a new battery cell design with an “L” or “C” shape. It believes that this concept will enable two combined cells to leave at least one tunnel between them where the company can add a cooling channel.
Production challenge
Considering the strange shape of GM’s patented battery cells, it may be challenging for the company to bring them to actual production.
In that sense, GM proposed other potential designs using more common rectangular prismatic cells but with the same capability as the Tetris-shaped ones.
Two of these cells would have shorter and fatter structures, while the other two are longer and thinner. According to GM, this would pave the way for a rectangular or H-shaped cooling channel.
GM’s concept is indeed remarkable, which demonstrates its dedication to continuously improving its electric vehicle battery technology.
