# From cells to packs, cars and the grid

> Battery systems on one page: an exploded battery pack, passive and active cell balancing, four ways to manage the temperature, a cell-to-pack design, an electric car with its pack and drive, and a grid storage container with its fire and gas safety. Every caption and number is quoted from the cited papers.

- Page: https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/energy-storage-guides/cells-packs-cars-grid
- Open in the LabCanvas editor (LabCanvas account): https://www.labcanvas.com/editor.html?template=battery-packs-vehicles-grid
- Updated: 2026-10-14
- Category: Battery & energy storage guides
- Method: Packs and systems
- Product: Battery packs, their management and cooling, and their use in cars and on the grid
- Key result: Packs, vehicles and containers drawn by LabCanvas after the cited papers; cell counts, sizes and colours are drawn, not to scale, and no panel is measured data
- Figure: 1920 × 1080 px, 45 editable layers (6 generated objects with settings)

## Steps

1. **An exploded pack**: The battery pack comprises cells and modules; its surrounding case is an integral part of the vehicle’s underbody structure and must withstand mechanical, thermal and vibrational loads, and the case tested has a lower and an upper cover, a side frame and internal cooling channels (Kim 2025). Besides the electrodes, a battery system holds conductive bus bars and a protective casing (Abe 2024), and a battery management system balances, protects and manages its energy (Venkatasatish 2024)
2. **Balancing the cells**: The BMS monitors the working state and prevents overcharge and overdischarge; the state of charge cannot be measured directly and is estimated, for example by ampere-hour integration or from the open-circuit voltage (Xu & Zhou 2026). If the cells are not properly balanced, the weakest cell limits the usable capacity (Khan 2024). Passive balancing is inexpensive and simple but slow and dissipates heat in a resistor; active balancing moves energy between cells with inductors, capacitors, transformers or DC–DC converters (Venkatasatish 2024)
3. **Thermal management**: Passive thermal management uses phase change or heat-conductive materials; active management uses forced air or liquid cooling, with better heat dissipation but a more complex design and more energy (Wen 2025). Air cooling is inexpensive and simple but dissipates heat less well (Gogoi 2025); refrigerant cools by immersion or through a cold plate (Kang 2024); in simulations an immersion system kept a module below 28.48 °C with a temperature difference below 3.08 °C at a 3C discharge and 25 °C ambient, and the same fluid preheats it at −20 °C (Luo 2024)
4. **Cell to pack**: Cell-to-pack designs remove the module-level components (Alum 2026)
5. **An electric car**: A battery electric vehicle has no combustion engine, automatic transmission, fuel tank or exhaust; that space takes the electric drive unit and the battery pack, and powertrain studies focus on the noise from the motor, the gears and the inverter (Hua 2021). EV battery systems generally sit underneath the vehicle, the pack case an integral part of the underbody structure (Kim 2025). With lithium-ion cells of 250–300 Wh/kg, a 90 kWh pack can give a 300-mile range (Wang 2022)
6. **Grid storage**: Installation-level tests put the unit racks inside a standard 20 ft ISO container, 6.06 m long, 2.43 m wide and 2.59 m high: a clean-agent (Novec 1230) system discharged when both smoke detectors activated, a dry-pipe water system sprayed 20.8 mm/min onto the tops of the storage units, and five deflagration vents relieved the pressure (McKinnon 2022). Containerisation enables a modular design, improved safety, easy transport and rapid installation, and the power converter is an inverter and a rectifier (Lekbir 2026)

## Strengths

- Active balancing moves energy between cells instead of burning it (Venkatasatish 2024)
- Containerisation enables a modular design, easy transport and rapid installation (Lekbir 2026)
- Cell-to-pack designs remove the module-level components (Alum 2026)

## Limitations

- The weakest cell limits the usable capacity of an unbalanced pack (Khan 2024)
- The state of charge cannot be measured directly (Xu & Zhou 2026)
- Thermal runaway can propagate through battery arrays and release flammable gases (McKinnon 2022)

## References

1. Kim et al., “Numerical and experimental approaches for mechanical durability assessment of an EV battery pack case”, Materials 2025. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma18245683 (primary)
2. Abe et al., “Cathode active materials using rare metals recovered from waste lithium-ion batteries: a review”, Heliyon 2024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e28145 (primary)
3. Venkatasatish & Dhanamjayulu, “Design and implementation of an inductor based cell balancing circuit with reduced switches for lithium-ion batteries”, Sci. Rep. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-80096-9 (primary)
4. Xu & Zhou, “The methods for estimating state of charge in lithium-ion batteries”, Materials 2026. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma19061267 (primary)
5. Khan et al., “A novel active cell balancing topology for serially connected Li-ion cells in the battery pack for electric vehicle applications”, Sci. Rep. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-68226-9 (primary)
6. Wen et al., “Advances and challenges in the battery thermal management systems of electric vehicles”, Materials 2025. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma18204718 (primary)
7. Gogoi et al., “Optimizing thermal performance in air-cooled Li-ion battery packs with vortex generators for cleaner energy storage”, Sci. Rep. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-03134-0 (primary)
8. Kang et al., “Application of refrigerant cooling in a battery thermal management system under high temperature conditions: a review”, ACS Omega 2024. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.4c02902 (primary)
9. Luo et al., “A battery thermal management system integrating immersion preheating and immersion cooling”, ACS Omega 2024. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.4c05163 (primary)
10. Alum et al., “Lithium-ion batteries as a cornerstone of electric vehicle advancement: innovations, challenges, and policy implications”, Top. Curr. Chem. 2026. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41061-026-00550-2 (primary)
11. Hua et al., “Recent progress in battery electric vehicle noise, vibration, and harshness”, Sci. Prog. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/00368504211005224 (primary)
12. Wang et al., “Fast charging of energy-dense lithium-ion batteries”, Nature 2022. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05281-0 (primary)
13. McKinnon et al., “Full-scale walk-in containerized lithium-ion battery energy storage system fire test data”, Data Brief 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2022.108712 (primary)
14. Lekbir et al., “Second-life lithium-ion batteries for circular energy systems: a techno-economic and environmental pathway to affordable grid-connected renewable storage”, Glob. Chall. 2026. https://doi.org/10.1002/gch2.70150 (primary)
15. Hardy et al., “Development of bespoke hardware and software to enable testing of a novel method of managing the charge and discharge of series-connected battery packs”, MethodsX 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mex.2023.102294 (further reading)

Credit: Drawn by LabCanvas after Kim et al., Materials 2025 (doi:10.3390/ma18245683), Venkatasatish & Dhanamjayulu, Sci. Rep. 2024, Wen et al., Materials 2025, Luo et al., ACS Omega 2024 and Wang et al., Nature 2022, and the papers in the details.

## Questions

**What does the “From cells to packs, cars and the grid” template show?** Battery systems on one page: an exploded battery pack, passive and active cell balancing, four ways to manage the temperature, a cell-to-pack design, an electric car with its pack and drive, and a grid storage container with its fire and gas safety. Every caption and number is quoted from the cited papers.

**What are the steps shown in “From cells to packs, cars and the grid”?** 1. An exploded pack: The battery pack comprises cells and modules; its surrounding case is an integral part of the vehicle’s underbody structure and must withstand mechanical, thermal and vibrational loads, and the case tested has a lower and an upper cover, a side frame and internal cooling channels (Kim 2025). Besides the electrodes, a battery system holds conductive bus bars and a protective casing (Abe 2024), and a battery management system balances, protects and manages its energy (Venkatasatish 2024). 2. Balancing the cells: The BMS monitors the working state and prevents overcharge and overdischarge; the state of charge cannot be measured directly and is estimated, for example by ampere-hour integration or from the open-circuit voltage (Xu & Zhou 2026). If the cells are not properly balanced, the weakest cell limits the usable capacity (Khan 2024). Passive balancing is inexpensive and simple but slow and dissipates heat in a resistor; active balancing moves energy between cells with inductors, capacitors, transformers or DC–DC converters (Venkatasatish 2024). 3. Thermal management: Passive thermal management uses phase change or heat-conductive materials; active management uses forced air or liquid cooling, with better heat dissipation but a more complex design and more energy (Wen 2025). Air cooling is inexpensive and simple but dissipates heat less well (Gogoi 2025); refrigerant cools by immersion or through a cold plate (Kang 2024); in simulations an immersion system kept a module below 28.48 °C with a temperature difference below 3.08 °C at a 3C discharge and 25 °C ambient, and the same fluid preheats it at −20 °C (Luo 2024). 4. Cell to pack: Cell-to-pack designs remove the module-level components (Alum 2026). 5. An electric car: A battery electric vehicle has no combustion engine, automatic transmission, fuel tank or exhaust; that space takes the electric drive unit and the battery pack, and powertrain studies focus on the noise from the motor, the gears and the inverter (Hua 2021). EV battery systems generally sit underneath the vehicle, the pack case an integral part of the underbody structure (Kim 2025). With lithium-ion cells of 250–300 Wh/kg, a 90 kWh pack can give a 300-mile range (Wang 2022). 6. Grid storage: Installation-level tests put the unit racks inside a standard 20 ft ISO container, 6.06 m long, 2.43 m wide and 2.59 m high: a clean-agent (Novec 1230) system discharged when both smoke detectors activated, a dry-pipe water system sprayed 20.8 mm/min onto the tops of the storage units, and five deflagration vents relieved the pressure (McKinnon 2022). Containerisation enables a modular design, improved safety, easy transport and rapid installation, and the power converter is an inverter and a rectifier (Lekbir 2026).

**Which papers is “From cells to packs, cars and the grid” based on?** Kim et al., “Numerical and experimental approaches for mechanical durability assessment of an EV battery pack case”, Materials 2025 (doi:10.3390/ma18245683); Abe et al., “Cathode active materials using rare metals recovered from waste lithium-ion batteries: a review”, Heliyon 2024 (doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e28145); Venkatasatish & Dhanamjayulu, “Design and implementation of an inductor based cell balancing circuit with reduced switches for lithium-ion batteries”, Sci. Rep. 2024 (doi:10.1038/s41598-024-80096-9); Xu & Zhou, “The methods for estimating state of charge in lithium-ion batteries”, Materials 2026 (doi:10.3390/ma19061267); Khan et al., “A novel active cell balancing topology for serially connected Li-ion cells in the battery pack for electric vehicle applications”, Sci. Rep. 2024 (doi:10.1038/s41598-024-68226-9); Wen et al., “Advances and challenges in the battery thermal management systems of electric vehicles”, Materials 2025 (doi:10.3390/ma18204718); Gogoi et al., “Optimizing thermal performance in air-cooled Li-ion battery packs with vortex generators for cleaner energy storage”, Sci. Rep. 2025 (doi:10.1038/s41598-025-03134-0); Kang et al., “Application of refrigerant cooling in a battery thermal management system under high temperature conditions: a review”, ACS Omega 2024 (doi:10.1021/acsomega.4c02902); Luo et al., “A battery thermal management system integrating immersion preheating and immersion cooling”, ACS Omega 2024 (doi:10.1021/acsomega.4c05163); Alum et al., “Lithium-ion batteries as a cornerstone of electric vehicle advancement: innovations, challenges, and policy implications”, Top. Curr. Chem. 2026 (doi:10.1007/s41061-026-00550-2); Hua et al., “Recent progress in battery electric vehicle noise, vibration, and harshness”, Sci. Prog. 2021 (doi:10.1177/00368504211005224); Wang et al., “Fast charging of energy-dense lithium-ion batteries”, Nature 2022 (doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05281-0); McKinnon et al., “Full-scale walk-in containerized lithium-ion battery energy storage system fire test data”, Data Brief 2022 (doi:10.1016/j.dib.2022.108712); Lekbir et al., “Second-life lithium-ion batteries for circular energy systems: a techno-economic and environmental pathway to affordable grid-connected renewable storage”, Glob. Chall. 2026 (doi:10.1002/gch2.70150); Hardy et al., “Development of bespoke hardware and software to enable testing of a novel method of managing the charge and discharge of series-connected battery packs”, MethodsX 2023 (doi:10.1016/j.mex.2023.102294).

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