A review on thermal management of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles

Abstract

In recent years, energy and environmental issues have become more and more prominent, and electric vehicles powered by lithium-ion battery have shown great potential and advantages in alleviating these issues. Compared with other batteries, lithium-ion batteries have the advantages of high specific energy, high energy density, long endurance, low self-discharge and long shelf life. However, temperature of the battery has become one of the most important parameters to be handled properly for the development and propagation of lithium-ion battery electric vehicles. Both the higher and lower temperature environments will seriously affect the battery capacity and the service life. Under high temperature environment, lithium-ion batteries may produce thermal runaway, resulting in short circuit, combustion, explosion and other safety problems. Lithium dendrites may appear in lithium-ion batteries at low temperature, causing short circuit, failure to start and other operational faults. In this paper, the used thermal management methods of lithium-ion batteries are introduced and their advantages and disadvantages are discussed and compared. At the same time, the prospect of future development is put forward.