March 14, 2025
The world of electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) is evolving rapidly, with advancements in battery technology, cooling systems, and manufacturing processes shaping the future of transportation. One of the key forums where industry experts discuss these innovations is the Thermal Management for EV/HEV conference. Our Vice President of Engineering, Brandon Brown, recently attended the 2025 edition of the conference in Munich, where he gathered valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities in the field of thermal management. Below, he shares his experience:
My time at the Thermal Management for EV/HEV conference in Munich last week was quite enlightening. A number of interesting topics were presented, spanning all sorts of fields, from future cooling needs to battery design considerations and even how new OEMs may be disrupting current markets. There were also a few interesting talks on using generative AI in engineering in a few different areas of design and development.
One interesting observation was that hybrid and extended-range EVs are expected to soon overtake pure battery electric vehicles in terms of the number of units sold. Looking further into the future, specifically in Europe, one of the bigger future disruptions are the new 2030 CO2 targets, which have already spurred some OEM planning and development efforts. Another large disruption expected in the market is how Chinese OEM manufacturers are taking more responsibility for the parts that go into a vehicle, and bringing as much manufacturing in-house as they can.
As this was a thermal management conference, there was a lot of discussion about the future of system thermal management architectures. Everything from improvements in the speed of simulations used in design to the push to reduce hardware by leaning in hard to virtualization and the use of AI/ML to the various methods of reducing the weight of thermal management was discussed. One of the more enlightening discussions was how the upcoming PFAS ban means that there is no longer a likely single best solution for system-level thermal management, and the use of a single-stage or dual-stage chilling loop is still very much under consideration.
Battery longevity was a topic that made several appearances, with thermal management of the battery playing a key role in this area. Immersion cooling was proposed as a potential solution, with many upsides, but a few design considerations are still being studied. For an immersion-cooled battery, the choice of coolant can be one of the most important decisions, balancing the dielectric needs, the thermal needs, and the performance and compatibility needs. While there is still debate about the best path forward, immersion cooling may be the preferable solution in certain cases. Low viscosity and high thermal conductivity are properties often sought for these coolant fluids, making testing the thermal performance difficult with many methods; in situations like this, C-Therm recommends the transient hot wire (THW) method as it minimizes the effect of convection associated with low viscosity samples. We expect the importance of heat transfer properties of such fluids to grow in the future, with more effort put into future enhancements using various additives.
The Thermal Management for EV/HEV conference impressed me with its high-quality presentations and well-informed speakers. Everybody who presented seemed to be a leader in their field and well-versed in the upcoming trends. I hope to return next year to learn about the industry’s ongoing trends and how the predictions from this year have panned out.
If you’re working in this space and facing thermal management challenges, our team at C-Therm is here to help. With industry-leading thermal conductivity measurement solutions, we provide the tools and expertise to optimize your designs for superior performance. Contact us today to learn how we can support your thermal management needs!