Optimised Storage Integration for the Electric Car

The OSTLER project will take a modular approach to integrating energy storage into EVs. The benefits will be that purpose-built EVs can readily be designed around their energy store and, crucially from a market attractiveness point of view, will give manufacturers the flexibility to offer model variants of an EV (or a plug-in hybrid vehicle) based on green attributes, specifically zero-emission range, rather than speed or acceleration as might be the case with conventional vehicles. The concept responds to the challenge of reconciling utility with pushing down the base level of CO2 emissions.

In more detail, the showroom choice could be between three versions of a gasoline-electric hybrid car: one with a 10 km range in EV mode and having a 20 kg battery pack, another with 20 km range and a 40 kg battery and yet another with 50 km range and 100 kg of battery. The customer would knowingly be compromising luggage and passenger space to achieve his or her target range.

The manufacturer drawing upon OSTLER’s smart integration and modular approach will be able to mitigate the penalties of the compromise.