2020 Volvo XC40 Recharge - Battery Design

The 2020 launch of the Volvo XC40 Recharge was in FWD and AWD. The battery pack usable energy options were 67kWh and 75kWh.

China vehicles use a CATL prismatic cell and the rest of the world used an LG pouch cell. This later changed with Australia also getting the CATL based design.

Usable Energy = 75 kWh (total = 78 kWh)
- SoC Window = 96.2%
Power = 333 kW_10s

This post has been built based on the support and sponsorship from: Eatron Technologies, About:Energy, AVANT Future Mobility, Quarto Technical Services, TAE Power Solutions and The Limiting Factor.

300kW of motor power and an assumption of 90% efficiency for the inverter gives 333kW at the battery terminals. Without knowing the inverter efficiency this is the assumption.

Physical Dimensions

Pack Mass = 500 kg

The overall vehicle was obviously not a ground up EV design as can be seen by the battery pack envelope.

Footwells for the rear seat passengers and double-stacked modules makes this a complex and expensive design. The benefit of using a standard size module allows Volvo to build packs for different locations in the world.

Enclosure

The basic enclosure is extruded aluminium beams.

On the top enclosure cover there are two aluminium beams with 3 fixings in each that are “reinforcements” [4].

Appears that the top cover has structural issues that required a last minute fix. Last minute as you would expect there to be a deep draw section in the cover if this had been seen earlier in the design.

Enclosure sealing
- Service pressure test = 50mbar held for 10 minutes with pressure drop of less than 1mbar [5]

The sealing surface is rather long and complex with many steps and height changes. It appears that this is not any easy pack to seal initially or after servicing.

Pressure relief valve consists of two valves in moulded plastic with O rings that are pushed into the front casting of the enclosure.

This appears to be a Gore Polyvent XS [6].

Charging

Peak charging power = 150 kW
Time to charge from 10 to 80% SoC = 30 minutes

Metrics

Gravimetric Energy Density = 156 Wh/kg
Gravimetric Power Density = 666 W_10s/kg

BMS

Analog Devices Inc.’s battery management system [2]

*Image of the battery pack on test with a lot of extra thermocouples. This testing is often down to establish the thermal control of the pack and operation of the cooling algorithms.*

BDU

The Battery Distribution Unit (BDU) sits on the top rear of the battery pack. The contactors, fuses and BMS can all be accessed by removing aluminium panels [4]. If these panels are removed they have to be discarded and new panels fitted.

BDU enclosure = diecast aluminium base, pressed aluminium covers
Bolted to battery pack enclosure

Main fuse = 500A
Contactors
- Main +ve = TE EVC 250
- Main -ve = TE EVC 250

Cells

European and US XC40s = LG pouch cells
China-bound EVs = CATL prismatic cells

References

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