Electric vehicles (EVs) are powered by lithium-ion batteries, which require an effective but low-power-consuming battery thermal management system (BTMS). The Mahindra Electric team developing algorithms for a BTMS for EVs needed to understand the best configuration of cells for maximum cooling and develop an efficient algorithm for the cooling circuit.

Using prior experience with Model-Based Design, the team created and validated a system-level simulation model for an electric vehicle with battery, cooling circuit, refrigeration circuit, vehicle, driver using Simulink^® and Simscape^®. They used this model to develop concepts and tune parameters to choose the best components at its best operating point.