Automotive Business Magazine – Q3 2026 – Digital edition - Flipbook - Page 18
OPI N I O N
EV
Advanced
engineering
→ Sam Norman is head of business development at Zotefoams
Z
EV Mandate pressure is
pushing industry discussions
beyond merely range, to
how EV battery packs can
be designed to perform
consistently over years of realworld use, repeated charging
cycles and high-volume
production. The future of EV
battery performance will depend as
much on pack architecture and material
consistency as it does on the cell itself.
This is where specialist materials
manufacturers must be more closely
involved in earlier design decisions.
A design challenge
A battery pack is a layered engineering
system. Each cell has to operate in a
controlled environment. The surrounding
materials must manage contact,
spacing and movement without adding
unnecessary complexity or weight. The
challenge is that cells do not remain
static over the life of the vehicle; they
expand and contract, while the pack as
a whole is exposed to vibration, impact
loads and varying temperatures.
Advanced foam materials can help
manage movement around the cells.
Used as compression pads or cell
dividers, foams can help manage
vibration and allow controlled expansion
and contraction, while cushioning
materials can help reduce the impact of
knocks or localised movement. Gaskets
and seals can also help protect the
pack from debris and fluids, supporting
reliability through years of use, charging
cycles and changing weather conditions.
Compression performance describes
how a material behaves when it is
squeezed and then released. This is a
crucial performance metric in a battery
pack where the material may need to
maintain spacing or contact pressure
over long periods.
Compression set – how much
a material fails to recover after
18
AUTOMOTIVE BUSINESS
Q3 2026
being compressed – is an important
consideration. A loss of recovery can
alter how the pack behaves as it ages.
Design teams must therefore work with
manufacturers to determine the most
appropriate materials for consistent
compression control.
Closed-cell foams – made up of
sealed internal cells that resist fluid
absorption – can be engineered to
provide compression resilience while
remaining lightweight. They can help
maintain tolerances around the cells,
support controlled movement and reduce
the risk of small dimensional changes
affecting the wider pack. The value lies
in predictable behaviour over time, rather
than a single performance point.
Scaling production
Small variations in material performance
become more consequential when moved
into high-volume production.
As EV production scales, materials must
also be compatible with the wider pack
assembly process, helping design teams
balance performance, safety assurance
and production efficiency without adding
unnecessary complexity.
Foam technology can support this
by providing materials that are easy to
form, cut, convert and integrate into
the pack assembly, while maintaining
repeatable behaviour at scale. Their
role is not simply to reduce weight, but
to help manage compression, spacing,
vibration and sealing in a way that can
be reproduced consistently.
As regulations increase the pace of
EV adoption, the materials around the
cell will become increasingly critical to
performance, reliability and efficiency.
For the automotive industry, battery
innovation will increasingly happen
beyond the cell laboratory, with key
developments occurring in the pack
design, on the production line and in
the material choices that hold the whole
system together.
