Stellantis Patents Electric Car Exhausts To Prevent Fire

JAKARTA - Fires in electric cars are rare. Modern electric cars have been designed to reduce the possibility of fires. Battery systems in electric cars are built such as tightly monitored power centers with many sensors and sophisticated liquid cooling settings to help regulate temperatures. However, not everything will always run smoothly.

Meanwhile, the concept of a disposal system or exhaust on electric cars may sound strange. So far, exhausts in electric cars are more often interpreted as speakers that produce sound similar to a fuel car. But, what if there is an automotive company that finds a function completely different?

Launching InsideEVs, Wednesday, February 5, recently the Stellantis automotive manufacturer has found much more important and non-controversial use for electric car exhausts. Not for style or sound, but fully focused on safety. A new patent issued by the United States Patent Office and Trademark, and first reported by Green Car Reports, shows how Stellantis believes it can reduce the risk of electric car battery fires.

So the way it works is when a battery experiences a catalyst failure, a short circuit, mechanical damage, external fires, excessive charging, or other conditions "battery" can experience a phenomenon that engineers call the thermal runaway. Simply put, battery cells not only weaken, but can cause severe chemical reactions. As a result, it can release a mixture of flammable gases consisting of hydrogen, methane, acetilena, propane, and others. Of course, these are very dangerous things when mixed with high temperatures.

This is where the genius Stellantis solution plays a role: a system that removes the gases from battery packaging to avoid electric car fires. Or, like they call the electric vehicle disposal system.

This system not only removes dangerous gases from packaging when a failure occurs. Stellantis patents explain the use of multiple "care zones" to chemically clean these gases before being released into the atmosphere. It's like catalytic converter, but for gas from damaged battery cells, not exhaust smoke.

Stellantis isn't the only company to think outside the box about how to prevent an electric car battery fire. Bosch, for example, suggested the use of controlled small explosions to physically cut off electric car batteries in the event of an accident.