Hyundai’s latest patent involves a rather interesting battery pack assembly that, by the looks of it, could work well with a “mid-engine” vehicle layout. We put mid-engine in quotations because, well, there may not be an engine involved, per se. Our good friends over at CarBuzz uncovered this patent and offered some intriguing ideas regarding its possible use case, which hovers around a low-slung sports car.
While the mid-engine sports car idea gets us excited, the patent also mentions that this battery assembly doesn’t have to follow the exemplary embodiments provided in the drawings. This means that the design, shape, and power output could be rearranged to fit different packaging needs. This is intriguing for more than one reason; let’s take a look at it!
To provide the most accurate and up-to-date information, this article uses data sourced from various manufacturers and authoritative sources, including CarBuzz and WIPO.
Hyundai’s Patent Details A Very Versatile Battery With Varying Layouts
Before we start yapping about sporty possibilities, let’s first cover what exactly we’re looking at in the image above. Making an EV battery in different shapes isn’t a new concept, though numerous buggers appear when trying to break the mold, most notably cooling and packaging constraints limiting performance and viability. As we see in the design, the “T”-shaped battery features numerous modules that are presented stacked on top of one another instead of the traditional flat layout — three deep and six wide in the main assembly; two deep and two wide in the “stem” of the pack — referred to in the patent as a “multi-stage structure”.
These modules can be rearranged to meet specific packaging requirements, although Hyundai addresses a pressing issue that arises when stacking modules in this manner: cooling. In a standard EV, one produced for lower-performance models (i.e., mainstream EVs), air-cooling is often sufficient for managing heat dissipation. However, in a high-performance setting where thermal heat exceeds the cooling ability of traditional air ventilation, liquid cooling can provide the thermal management required to keep the battery happy.
Hyundai has designed the “T”-shaped battery to include just that, with liquid cooling packs, referred to as “cold plates,” positioned between each module. Numerous claims in the patent also account for grounding the battery pack in various manners, which include, among other solutions, connecting the Power Distribution Unit (PDU) to the cold packs via a system of earthing portions that can be arranged to fit the needs of the battery pack’s packaging.
Hyundai’s “T”-Shaped Battery Patent May Hold The Key To Next-Level EV Sports Cars
CarBuzz pointed out the possibility of “mid-engine” sports car applications, using Hyundai’s N Vision 74 concept as a stage. The low-slung concept was built with the idea of a hydrogen fuel cell, a design that wouldn’t accommodate a traditional EV battery. This “T”-shaped battery, however, could work given its variable packaging ability, residing under the rear seats and into the tunnel that houses the fuel tank. Think of its positioning occupying the transmission tunnel in a gas car.
The mid-engine ambition came about when considering placing the “T”-shaped battery behind the driver, which would give the theoretical sportster a mid-engine rear bias without compromising its low-slung, sleek styling. As always, patents don’t guarantee production, though this is something that definitely raises eyebrows considering the auto industry’s push for clean mobility, as well as EV performance breaking barriers with each passing year.
Source: WIPO, CarBuzz
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