C2I 2020 Automotive winner: Playing it cool

speed up the roll out of green mobility. Andrew Wade reports.

Category: Automotive

Winner: i-CoBat (Immersion Cooled Electric Vehicle Battery Packs)

Partners: M&I Materials Ltd with Ricardo Ltd, Warwick Manufacturing Group at

University of Warwick

At this stage, there can be little doubt that the future of the automotive industry is electric. Huge strides towards greener mobility have been made in recent years, from innovative motors to composite lightweighting and advanced battery technology. However, some key barriers to consumer adoption remain, and none is more frequently cited by drivers than charging times and the consequent range anxiety they can induce.

The UK’s first petrol station opened more than a hundred years ago in November 1919. A century is a long time for a society to reinforce a habit, to become accustomed to the frequent convenience of filling up and driving off. Electric vehicles can outshine their combustion counterparts in many ways but, currently, forecourt convenience is simply not one of them. i-CoBat - the winning collaboration in our automotive category - is seeking to change that, using immersion cooling for EV batteries that will enable safter ultra-fast charging and ultimately speed up the transition to electric mobility.