CURRENT EVENTS IN VEHICLE BATTERY SAFETY

Donald B. Karner, Electric TransportationApplications, Glendale, AZ 85308

requirement is developed based on engineering

judgment. Requirements are then tested for
effectiveness and practicahty through pilot
application at electric vehicle competition events.
Specific feedback in the form of lessons leaned
is gathered after each pilot application and
appropriate modifications to requirements are
incorporated.

As electric vehicles begin to leave the research

environment for placement into fleets of electric
utilities and government agencies, issues of battery
safety become paramount to facilitating electric
vehicle commercialization. Through the conduct of
electric vehicle competitions, much experience has
been gained with battery safety in automotive
applications. The race track provides a controlled
environment with safety requirements similar to
that found in on-the-road applications. While a
greater level of risk may be tolerated on the track
than on the road, the issues which must be dealt
with are the same.

Through the SERV Project efforts and actual

experience with electric vehicles in a competition
environment, several issues involving battery
design have emerged as significant to battery safety
and electric vehicle commercialization. These
include chemical hazards, electrical hazards, and
collision hazards.

In order to avoid learning of battery safety issues

by accident, a project has been undertaken to
determine the hazards and risk associated with
electric vehicle competitions and develop standards
and requirements to ize risk. The Safety of
Electric Racing Vehicles (SERV) Project is a joint
effort of Arizona Public Service Company, the
U.S. Department of Energy, and other electric
vehicle industry sponsors. The SERV Project has
developed a systematic evaluation of hazards and
risk associated with electric vehicle operation. This
analysis focuses on the requirements necessary to
establish a safe electric vehicle infrastructure.

Chemical Hazards
The chemical hazards associated with a given
battery technology are perhaps the most significant
of all hazards. Issues to consider include the
reactivity of the battery constituents, potential
interactions between battery constituents and
common automotive chemicals, the interaction of
battery constituents with chemicals from other
batteries, handling issues associated with battery
constituents, and storage and disposal of battery
constituents.

The SERV evaluation process begins with the

identification of hazards associated with electric
vehicles. This identification includes electrical,
chemical, fire and collision hazards. The risks
associated with these hazards are then evaluated, as
is the uncertainty with which the risk is known.
The methodology used to perform the hazards
assessment and riWuncertainty evaluation is an
adaptation of a synergistic methodology utilized in
process industries to evaluate new chemical
processes. Once the risk and uncertainty have been
qualitatively evaluated, a ranking is performed to
determine priority for development of requirements
to reduce both risk and uncertainty to acceptable
levels (hence increasing the assurance of safety),

The potential for chemical release is the primary

hazard associated with battery systems. This
hazard can be reduced or eliminated by using
immobilizedchemicals. Large volumes of liquid or
gaseous chemicals significantly increase the hazard
associated with an electric vehicle battery system.
Batteries of this type must employ engineered
safeguards to reduce the risk associated with the
release hazard. These safeguards must be effective
against battery tampering by untrained personnel,
battery system hardware and software (control
system) failures, as well as the results of impact
during vehicle collisions. This latter requirement is
by far the most difficult to accommodate. With the
severe damage possible in a vehicle collision, it is
very difficult to provide the protection necessary to
prevent chemical releases in all vehicle collision
scenarios. Therefore, the consequences of a release

Requirements for reducing risk and uncertainty

take the form of existing consensus standards
where ever possible. If an existing standard does
not exist or is not appropriateto the specific risk, a

0-7803-2459-5/95/$4.00 0 1995 IEEE

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leakage current to ground under all operating

conditions.

must be examined and the risk associated with such

release evaluated. With the potential for tens to
hundreds of human receptors to be in the vicinity
of a vehicle collision, the release of even smaU
qualities of highly reactive materials may present
high consequences and unacceptable risk.

Unrestrained energy release fiom battery modules

becomes a great concern as battery energy and
module size increase. For modules with energy in
the range of several kilowatt hours, it is not
acceptable to rely on external system fuses to
protect against short circuits discharging battery
energy. Module handling accidents and collisions
provide significant opportunity to short circuit a
single module, unprotected by a system fuse.
Therefore, integral module fusing must become a
consideration in large, high energy modules. The
module fuse ampacity may be set substantially
above typical system fuse ratings to ensure
compatibility with various drive systems, yet
provide protection fiom a fault on the battery
module.

Hazards associated with high temperature batteries

are also contributors to risks associated with on the
road electric vehicles. Control system failures
causing overheating on charge or discharge,
insulation failure, and collision damage to
insulation or resulting in release of molten materials
are a few of the scenarios which can contribute to
risks from high temperature batteries. Engineered
safeguards must again be employed to mitigate
these risks to acceptable levels.
The choice of battery system must consider the
hazard involved with battery constituents. If these
hazards are ignored, the cost, weight, and
p e r f o m c e of the battery system may be
unacceptably impacted by the engineered
safeguards necessary to reduce chemical release
risks to acceptable levels.

Collision Hazards
Collision hazards result from chemical release
(addressed under chemical hazards) and mechanical
forces. The large battery mass in an electric vehicle
presents a substantial challenge to the designer of
vehicle crash protection features. The efficiency
required by electric vehicles demands the vehicle
structures be as light as possible and that the
vehicle battery mass fraction be as large as
possible. This large battery mass contained in a
light vehicle structure makes compliance with
vehicle crashworhtiness requirements difficult.
Batteries typically must be placed beneath the
vehicle floor to allow a direct mechanical
connection with the frame and battery movement in
a frontal crash without intruding in the passenger
compartment. Batteries must also be place low and
centrally within the vehicle to assure proper
handling characteristics. This dictates that a proper
electric vehicle battery have a low aspect ratio to
allow placement beneath the vehicle, while
maintaining appropriate ground clearance. Battery
terminals should be placed to avoid top
connections.

Electrical Hazards
The electrical hazards associated with a given
battery technology are driven by the voltage level
of the battery system and the energy available from
a single module. As battery modules are series
connected to establish a traction battery, voltages
may reach over 400 volts and pack energy may
exceed 50 kilowatt hours. The potential for
electrical shock from this high voltage, or
unrestrained release of battery energy present a
hazard to personnel maintaining the vehicle. While
it is always desirable to have trained personnel
servicing the vehicle, the possibility that
inexperienced and untrained personnel may be
involved with vehicle maintenance must be
considered.
The shock hazard associated with electric vehicle
traction batteries is normally reduced by
maintaining a floating ground on the battery. This
floating ground is only as effective as the insulation
level of the battery. Terminal design must evolve to
a closed or tightly insulated terminal to provide
very high insulation to ground under duty, wet,
and salty conditions. The open terminals typically
used on contemporary batteries does not provide
sufficient track distance to maintain near zero

In a competition environment, accommodationscan

be made to overcome current battery shortcomings
in the areas of chemical, electrical, and collision
hazards. These accommodations typically take the
form of mitigating measures which increase vehicle
weight, reduce vehicle performance, reduce vehicle
usefulness, or require specialized personnel
training. If electric vehicles are to be extensively

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training. If electric vehicles are to be extensively

commercialized,these types of mitigative measures
will be unacceptable to both the vehicle
manufacturer and the vehicle purchaser. Further,
batteries that are not inherently safe may never be
installed in mass production vehicles.
The electric vehicle must compete with a
technology that is already viewed as safe and in a
regulatory environment which mandates safety.
The recent r e d order for General Motors CK
pickup trucks with side saddle fuel tanks is but one
example of the extreme c m which is required in
mass production automotive applications. Proper
battery design must assist in avoiding the economic
and political consequences of such a recall for
electric vehicles.

References
1. A r i Z o ~Public Service Company, Edison
Electric Institute, US Department of Energy,
SERV Project Race Safety Plans, published by
Electric Transportation Applications; September
1993.

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