Battery Thermal Management Approach for 2-Wheeler Electric Vehicles – An Indian Case Study

2026-26-0151

To be published on 01/16/2026

Authors Abstract
Content
India's electric 2-wheeler (E2W) market has witnessed fast growth, driven by lucrative government policies. Two-wheeler market captures 73% volume of total Indian automotive market, representing the largest segment (Greaves Electric Mobility Limited report 2024). Consequently, all manufacturers of 2-wheelers are developing new electric vehicles (EV) tailored for the Indian market. However, the Indian EV market has witnessed multiple fire accidents in recent years, raising safety concerns among consumers and industry stakeholders. These incidents highlight key weakness in battery thermal management systems (BTMS), particularly during charging. Most existing E2W BTMS relies on passive air cooling, which has been associated with fire incidents due to its inefficiency in heat dissipation, particularly charging in India's high-temperature environment. Therefore, it is imperative to build thermally viable and economical BTMS for the growing E2W vehicles with fast charging capability. The current study presents the improvement brought by FEV's innovative passive cooling design compared to the base line design with conventional passive cooling. As a next step active air-cooling benefits are shown. Additionally, the potential of liquid cooling is simulated including the concept of immersion-cooled battery packs as a solution for fast charging stations for swappable battery pack concept for E2W. Numerous design parameters including cell spacing, coolant flow orientation, inlet-outlet placement, cell configurations, and immersion fluid selection are evaluated for the thermal performance. Using well-validated 1D & 3D simulation modeling techniques detailed assessment of heat transfer process, temperature distribution, coolant flow dynamics and auxiliary power requirements were predicted to optimize the battery design and BTMS. The simulations were performed for high external ambient temperature of 45°C to cover the worst case scenario for India. The study will offer recommendations for choosing the best BTMS for the 2W markets based on factors including cooling performance, cost, packaging and weight. This work offers actionable guidance for designing and improving future-generation energy storage solutions, adding to the expanding understanding of advanced battery cooling techniques specially for low cost 2W Indian market.
Meta TagsDetails
Citation
Emran, A., Sankhla, H., Garg, S., Raut PhD, A. et al., "Battery Thermal Management Approach for 2-Wheeler Electric Vehicles – An Indian Case Study," SAE Technical Paper 2026-26-0151, 2026, .
Additional Details
Publisher
Published
To be published on Jan 16, 2026
Product Code
2026-26-0151
Content Type
Technical Paper
Language
English