A review on thermal management of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles

In recent years, energy and environmental issues have become more and more prominent, and electric vehicles powered by lithium-ion battery have shown great potential and advantages in alleviating these issues. Compared with other batteries, lithium-ion batteries have the advantages of high specific energy, high energy density, long endurance, low self-discharge and long shelf life. However, temperature of the battery has become one of the most important parameters to be handled properly for the development and propagation of lithium-ion battery electric vehicles. Both the higher and lower temperature environments will seriously affect the battery capacity and the service life. Under high temperature environment, lithium-ion batteries may produce thermal runaway, resulting in short circuit, combustion, explosion and other safety problems. Lithium dendrites may appear in lithium-ion batteries at low temperature, causing short circuit, failure to start and other operational faults. In this paper, the used thermal management methods of lithium-ion batteries are introduced and their advantages and disadvantages are discussed and compared. At the same time, the prospect of future development is put forward. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.