Sometimes, going after more information from an automaker is useless. It reveals a new vehicle or a concept car and holds back essential data. Thankfully, suppliers are frequently willing to share more about their work and help us learn more about some vehicles. This was the case with the RAM 1500 Revolution BEV Concept and its Pentatonic Battery System.
Developed by Kautex, it was exposed close to the electric pickup truck at CES 2023. According to the supplier, it offers an impressive weight reduction of up to 60% in the battery pack. Curiously, Kautex did not mention how much that helps improve energy density, but we could not omit what a whip hand that is, if that is confirmed.
The supplier also said that the Pentatonic Battery System reduces the carbon footprint by up to 40%, which can be an incredible asset against people who state that making an electric car emits more carbon than a combustion-engined vehicle would do for hundreds of thousands of miles.
The Pentatonic Battery System’s main edge is the construction with thermoplastics or composite metal hybrids instead of the use of steel and aluminum. Thermoplastics are not subject to corrosion, something that would have spared thousands of Model S owners from water ingress in their battery packs after Tesla placed the AC drain hose right above the steel fuse box cover.
Kautex also praises the system for better thermal management and more insulation, but it did not mention how much better these elements are compared to traditional ones. It also said battery packs would help carmakers eliminate welding and decrease downline complexity with its “one-shot production process.” The bill of material also gets substantially shorter. Manufacturing folks will applaud all those things as long as the battery packs made with this system last as much or longer than the current ones. Kautex did not confirm, if that is the case.
The most important part of what the supplier disclosed is not in texts but actually in pictures. Kautex also released two images that show its Pentatonic Battery System is carrying Factorial pouch cells. Not by chance, the battery startup also announced at CES 2023 that it had just developed a 100 Ah solid-state battery (SSB).
Factorial said it revealed this new solid-state cell at the Stellantis exhibition space in the event. Curiously, we have not seen a single comment about the fact that the concept electric pickup truck probably uses solid-state cells. Considering it is just a concept, that would probably not catch too much attention anyway. To make matters worse, Factorial thinks it will only have the production version for these cells by 2026, three years from now. Considering that is the time most car projects take to be fully developed, it would not surprise us if the production version of the RAM 1500 Revolution BEV Concept arrived with these batteries.
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