Ford is looking at ways to make electric vehicle battery packs easier to repair—especially as their cooling systems improve more—a patent filing shows.
The document, published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Dec. 12, 2024, after being sent by Ford Jun. 12 June 2023, explains how the battery modules can be replaced without removing the entire package from the car. This is possible to reduce maintenance costs and can be green, which may allow some packs to be renamed with new modules rather than replaced.
Patent photo of a Ford battery pack designed for easy module replacement
Ford is discussing keeping the common structure of an undermounted battery, with multiple modules containing multiple battery cells. Electrical terminals with removable caps and spring-loaded connectors will allow modules to be removed as needed.
Patent filing also mentions immersion coolingwhere the battery components are cooled directly by a non-conductive liquid that will not cause electrical shorts. Immersion cooling is a relatively new concept in EV development, as most modern EVs even with liquid cooling use external cooling modules and/or a cooling plate. But this requires additional hardware that makes accessing the battery modules more difficult.
Patent photo of a Ford battery pack designed for easy module replacement
Some car manufacturers, such as Mercedes-Benz, have considered abandoning the alternative altogether, air cooling. The physical configuration of cells and modules is also considered, with General Motors looking at the arrangement of different cells to increase cooling and Canoo designing a battery pack with a modular structure connected to the vehicle's frame and cooling system.
It's a new place. Rimac is one of the only companies to have detailed a true immersion cooling system conditions thermally for each cell in many places (Cybertruck may qualify for this description as well, but Tesla has not yet specified details about the system). Bringing such technology to the mass market could help Ford leapfrog others—even Tesla.