Source: Professor Kelly and Munro do similar things, take cars apart. Munto to calculate the cost of parts and labor to make a car. Kelly does it to teach mechanics how to take it apart and it back in working order. This 2024 traction battery is much improved over the one in my former, 2017 Prius Prime. Given what I've learned from Munro, it could be designed better but there have been much worse. BEST Direct thermal management instead of air flow Conformal underbody part Direct refrigerant for cell cooling COULD BE BETTER Colocate all possible power electronics with the battery Even number of modules so all power terminals on one end Cooling from a single spot leads to thermal gradients inside the cells The Toyota lead engineer needs to hold a 'conference' with everyone designing, making, and fixing the battery with this goal: Reduce parts count Bob Wilson
Great ideas, but they are unlikely to reach the design engineers. I don't think they monitor this resource daily. Maybe you should write a letter to Toyota headquarters and offer your ideas?
No fair... I came here to post this and you beat me to it! And he only posted it 7 hours ago! Currently watching it. Seem like the refrigeration system is especially not fun to put back together after you take it apart. Sure is impressive the way he's been doing his teachings for so long!
I’m not sure bev engineering necessarily applies to phevs. Toyota has done a pretty good job with batteries over the years. Now if this were the busy4x, it might be a different story
I see this as just another generation. Over time, Toyota has shown skill in product improvement: Gen 0 - "D" cell NiMH with air cooling/heating Gen 1 - six cell, prismatic with weak terminals and air cooling/heating Gen 2 - six cell, prismatic with improved terminals and lower internal resistance Gen 3 - first LiON "square box" in a "round spare tire" hole, air cooled and heating and inside cabin Gen 4 - exterior to cabin LiON battery assembly with liquid cooling and resistive heating and single cell Perhaps a little slow in new technology, they still hit sweet spots from time to time. Bob Wilson
Remember that this is a PHEV with only a 40-mile range; so, the battery doesn’t need to be fancy. I think the main improvement is getting it out of the trunk, which improves the safety. I don’t find the refrigerant cooling an improvement. Someone here had a refrigerant leak at the battery, which, I believe, cost $15,000 to fix, thankfully under warranty. If the same thing happens after the warranty expires, the car goes to the junkyard.
My hands-on experience with PHEVs: 25 mi EV - insufficient as work was 10 miles away 72 mi EV - perfectly fine but the "25 mi EV" PHEV could not replace it 106 mi EV - leaving in about 20-30 minutes for a 500 mile, day trip Bob Wilson
