VDA prismatic cells are based on a standard written by the German automotive industry. VDA stands for Verband der Automobilindustrie (German Association of the Automotive Industry).
Prismatic Cells
As the name suggests these are a prismatic block, normally with the outer case made from aluminium. Again these come in many different formats and there is little standardisation apart from the VDA PHEV2 size of cell. These cells need a pressure applied to the main faces of the cell in order to maintain their performance over time.
The VDA proposed standards for the size of the battery cell technology used in automotive industry:
| Cell Format | Width [mm] | Height [mm] | Thickness [mm] |
| HEV | 120 | 85 | 12.5 |
| PHEV1 | 173 | 85 | 21 |
| PHEV2 | 148 | 91 | 26.5 |
| PHEV2+ | 148 | 125 | 26.5 |
| EV1 | 173 | 115 | 32 |
| EV2 | 173 | 115 | 45 |
This post has been built based on the support and sponsorship from: About:Energy, AVANT Future Mobility, Quarto Technical Services, TAE Power Solutions and The Limiting Factor.
VDA Formats
The only issue, as with all formats, is that not all cells are the same. In the PHEV2 format you will see that certain cell manufacturers have different thickness and hence height tabs. Thus making the overall height of the cells different.
Warning: even if it states they are VDA prismatic cells, check the dimensions on the specification sheet and on the actual cell.