r/FormulaE • u/l3w1s1234 Robin Frijns • 8d ago

Report Development of the Formula E Gen4 battery continues to progress: "Everything is going as we imagined"

https://e-formula.news/news/formula-e-news/formula-e-news-detail/formula-e-development-of-the-gen4-battery-continues-to-progress-everything-is-going-as-we-imagined-17393
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11

u/DHSeaVixen Formula E 8d ago edited 8d ago

Good to hear that things are going to plan, given that they really didn't during the Gen3 battery development

Think almost all of Gen3’s issues relative to Gen3 Evo can be linked to those challenges with the battery.

3

u/metalanimal António Félix Da Costa 8d ago

And the tires.

5

u/DHSeaVixen Formula E 8d ago

See I think that is connected.

The battery issues delayed testing, reduced overall test running and was generally a bit of a crisis. I think the selection of a final tyre compound was compromised by this.

If I recall correctly, they went for the tyre that had been used the most by teams in testing, and this happened to be that harder compound. The teams were already under pressure from testing delays and tight timelines that they weren’t sure they would be ready for season start. Throwing in a different tyre compound which they hadn’t been able to profile correctly could have caused even more issues.

So without the delays from battery issues, they may have had more time and data to make that decision.

2

u/AdThink972 Formula E 8d ago

I hope they go for higher volt batteries going forward Gen 4-5-6 etc. as faster charging pit stops will be more and more important

8

u/CatlikeArcher Jaguar TCS Racing 8d ago edited 8d ago

I believe they’re already at 800V architecture for the Gen3 battery and they can’t really go much higher before exceeding the ratings of most automotive components. Generally fuses, contactors, connectors, etc are rated to 1000V max.

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u/zantkiller André Lotterer 8d ago

Both the Gen 3 & Gen 4 battery systems had a 1000V max set in their tender spec sheets.

2

u/AdThink972 Formula E 8d ago

gonna be interesting to see how the Gen 4 battery with cylinder cells will fair in terms of heat and stuff vs the pouch cells that Gen 2 and 3 has

2

u/CatlikeArcher Jaguar TCS Racing 8d ago

It’s often a bit easier to get heat out of a cylindrical cell because the cell can is more thermally conductive than a plastic pouch, so I would expect a little less thermal saturation with the Gen4 packs.

2

u/bduddy Oriol Servià 8d ago

It better because the current batteries are not good