Constellium announced the results of its collaborative research project, ALuminium Intensive Vehicle Enclosures (ALIVE), which was focused on developing structural aluminum battery enclosures for electric vehicles (EVs). The multidisciplinary team was able to successfully develop novel battery enclosure designs that reduced weight, while meeting performance targets.
“Today, we celebrate the impressive achievements of the ALIVE project and the power of collaboration between OEMs and suppliers to innovate the future of the automotive industry,” said Alexandra Bendler, president of Constellium’s Automotive Structures & Industry business unit. “Together, we are paving the way toward sustainable electrification, offering unparalleled battery enclosure designs that exceed performance and cost requirements while providing significant weight savings. Thank you to all the teams and partners involved for their exceptional contributions.”
The ALIVE project was led by Constellium’s University Technology Center (UTC) at Brunel University London. The collaborative project was performed by a consortium of six industrial partners (BMW, Volvo, Constellium, EXPERT Technologies Group, Innoval Technology, and Powdertech) and two university technology partners (BCAST at Brunel University London and WMG – University of Warwick). The £15m project was half funded by UK government subsidies through its Advanced Propulsion Center (APC) began in 2020.
The battery enclosure designs and associated manufacturing technologies developed for the project are capable of saving between 12% to 35% of the weight of EV battery enclosures, depending on the design, compared to existing OEM aluminum and steel designs. The enclosures utilize aluminum extrusions that were produced at the UTC for the project.
In addition to reducing the weight, the multidisciplinary team also ensured that the design met the challenging performance, manufacturing, weight, and cost targets for the project’s OEM partners, BMW and Volvo. The project’s multidisciplinary team investigated and implemented a wide range of joining and forming technologies in combination with Constellium’s family of high-strength and high-crash alloys, Constellium HSA6® and Constellium HCA6®, to create high-performance, lightweight, and cost-efficient aluminum designs.
The project also enabled the creation of a full-scale battery enclosure prototyping line. Several different 1:1 scale prototypes have been built for a variety of vehicle platforms, passing a range of severe testing requirements such as side pole crash/side impact, bottom intrusion, acceleration, shock, vibration, and leak testing. The team also demonstrated the superior performance of coated aluminum solutions for fire resistance.
ALIVE also supported the development of cost models to quantify manufacturing costs and minimize capital expenditures to support future industrialization decision-making processes. Given the rapidly evolving EV market, the team had to adapt quickly and develop various technologies supporting OEMs’ structural, non-structural, module-to-pack, and cell-to-pack battery enclosure strategies.
Additionally, the consortium proposed a full cradle-to-grave Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), validated by an external panel, demonstrating the benefit of aluminum solutions over ancillary steel designs.
The Constellium team is already adapting the design philosophies to other enclosure types, such as chest battery packs for trucks and SUVs, as well as validating the use of high-recycled content alloys in such demanding aluminum product forms to further improve their carbon footprint.