Plugged In: A Lasagna-Lover’s Information to EV Battery Cell Anatomy

Final Up to date on: twenty seventh June 2025, 11:07 pm

By Mandira Ganti, intern, Tech Communications

They are saying meals is gas, which seems to be an ideal metaphor for understanding how electrical automobile batteries work — they’re constructed like lasagna.

Creating the proper lasagna could be daunting, however it’s simple to eat (plus, it’s tasty!). Constructing a high-performance EV battery cell takes precision and planning, however understanding the layers inside is surprisingly easy. Each a battery cell and a lasagna include a couple of important layers, every with a definite function.

Let’s dig in.

While you think about an EV battery, you would possibly image the massive, rectangular unit put in beneath the ground in most electrical automobiles. That’s truly the battery pack — the construction that homes many particular person batteries. Consider the battery pack like an industrial-sized oven holding a number of pans of lasagna. Our present EV battery packs include not less than 10 modules — consider these because the lasagna pans. In our present battery design, every module holds 24 battery cells, technically known as pouch kind issue cells — our 24 servings of lasagna. So regardless that it appears to be like like one strong system, it’s actually a whole lot of coordinated elements working collectively.

And it’s inside these particular person battery cells the place a few of right this moment’s most cutting-edge improvements occur.

Now, let’s think about opening a one-serving container of lasagna. That container is just like the cell casing that protects one serving of battery energy. Open the casing and also you’ll discover a stack of electrodes — consider this as your slice of lasagna (although in most GM EV batteries, the stack can be flipped on its facet). Every battery cell has a pair of electrodes: a positively charged cathode and a negatively charged anode.

The electrodes are skinny sheets of metallic foil generally known as present collectors, aluminum for the cathode and copper for the anode, coated with totally different chemical “elements.” Consider the cathode because the wealthy, flavorful sauce layer, whereas the anode is just like the creamy ricotta layer — each important, however distinct elements of the recipe.

The important thing to good lasagna is holding the ricotta and sauce from mixing right into a gooey mess. In a lasagna, pasta sheets preserve the layers distinct, whereas in a battery cell, a skinny polymer separator retains the cathode and anode supplies aside. These three layers (cathode, separator, and anode) repeat a number of occasions to create a stack of roughly 20 layers. This construction is the place the chemical reactions happen, storing the power that powers an EV.

With out diving too deep simply now, it’s vital to know some battery fundamentals to essentially grasp the anatomy of a battery cell.

To create electrical present, ions and electrons want to maneuver between the electrodes through two paths.

Lithium ions journey from the anode, by way of the separator to the cathode contained in the cell. The battery cell is crammed with a gel-like substance known as electrolyte which helps the ions move by way of the separator. The electrolyte is just like the water contained in the cooked sheets of pasta that get layered into the lasagna — with out the moisture from cooking, the pasta sheets can be too stiff, and the flavors (or on this case, ions) couldn’t circulate between layers.

In the meantime, electrons take an outdoor route, beginning on the anode, touring by way of the automobile’s electrical methods, and returning to the cathode. The electrons enter and exit the cell by way of terminals, delivering electrical energy on the way in which to all of the electrically-powered gadgets within the automobile (the electrical motor, the stereo, the air-con, and so on.). This journey strikes the facility out of the battery into the automobile — the identical approach your fork delivers meals out of your plate to your mouth, then goes again for the following chew.

Electrons and ions repeat this journey from the cathode to the anode 1000’s of occasions per second, however it’s nonetheless all achieved with a couple of major elements:

1. The cell casing
2. Cathode sheets (aluminum present collector + chemical coating)
3. Anode sheets (copper present collector + chemical coating)
4. Separator sheets
5. The cathode terminal
6. The anode terminal
7. The electrolyte

Developments are consistently occurring in EV battery tech, however these seven basic elements are all the time within the combine. When new EV battery know-how is introduced, it normally means engineers have fine-tuned one in every of these elements, like a high chef including a secret ingredient to enhance their lasagna recipe. And since there are a whole lot of battery cells in every electrical automobile, small adjustments can ship important leaps in efficiency, vary, or price.

So preserve your eyes on the recipe. We’ll be again quickly to clarify how electrification know-how works, utilizing on a regular basis ideas to make them simple to know.

Article from GM.