Feasibility study of High Voltage battery pack assembly and process optimization for low and medium scale automotive Sportscar manufacturer.

The demand for electric vehicles is constantly increasing and battery packs plays a very important role in determining vehicle's performance and cost. Optimal design and assembly of battery packs increases the productivity, decreases the product cost and subsequently brings down the cost of electric vehicles. This dissertation intends to find an efficient process design for the automated assembly of high voltage battery packs for PHEV vehicles. Technological solutions are studied and adapted to the needs of low capacity super sport manufacturers. The economic impact of such production, intented as needed investments, is analyzed aiming at achieving a comparison between the high voltage battery part price when bought or in house assembled. The starting point of this dissertation is a critical analysis of an existing comparable projects and competitors' solutions. The socio-economic scenario that made the automotive market to develop hybrid vehicles are then analyzed. With these information and the current planning status of new vehicles, the high voltage battery production is studied among five macro-areas: (1) pre matching, (2) cell stacking, (3) module closure, (4) battery pack assembly and (5) product validation, taking into account the necessary manufacturing time, equipment, and space. Furthermore, the issues inherited with this manufacturing process, mostly due to the dangers involved when working with high voltage systems, are examined. Finally virtual process planning is done to validate the proposed automation facility and the results are discussed. The result of this thesis serves as a source for the basic concept of high voltage battery production. It gives an overview of the entire topics related to the production of a high voltage battery and a detailed analysis of the impact on company asset.