While full of potential environmental benefits, electric vehicles (BEV) pose new challenges for OEMs versus their internal combustion engine (ICE) counterparts. One example of this is protecting the battery from road debris or other intrusions that could damage the enclosure or the cells. In an ICE vehicle, this concern is mostly limited to off-road driving, but for an EV, damage to the battery enclosure or the cells could lead to an expensive replacement or even writing off the total cost of the vehicle.
Kautex's Pentatonic underbody protection system offers a lightweight, durable solution to this challenge. Constructed from the same thermocomposite material as our Pentatonic battery enclosure, the system offers the same benefits as our full Pentatonic solution: improved corrosion resistance, greater insulation and design flexibility and, perhaps most important in this situation, improved serviceability. Moreover, our underbody protection system offers these benefits with up to a 50% reduction in weight versus its steel counterparts, reducing the vehicle's total weight and CO2 emissions.
Working closely with our customers, Kautex desgins the underbody protection system that best fits their needs, from an all-thermocomposite design to more complex designs of aluminum and thermocomposite-hybrid to meet different impact requirements for on-and-off road applicaitons. For additional stability, organo reinforcements can be integrated during the production process.
CAE simulation and in-house physical testing are basic requirements in any of our design processes. Once we have simulated the ideal design, a physical prototype is constructed and undergoes numerous static and dynamic tests.
Coupling our underbody protection system with our Pentatonic Battery System will help OEMs reduce weight and CO2 emissions while offering advantages that steel and aluminum solutions can't match. As EVs become mainstream, we can expect more unforeseen obstacles to arise regarding the safety and shielding of the battery pack. Kautex, with its proven capabilities in design, testing, validation and global productions, can serve as a trusted partner to solve these complex challenges.
For more information, visit Kautex.com.
