Assessment of Changeability in Battery Cell Production Systems

The production of battery cells for electric vehicles is challenged by several drivers. On the one hand, there is social awareness for climate change and shortage of fossil resources. Therefore, electric vehicles more and more become an element of automotive manufacturers portfolio. On the other hand, it is not yet decided which battery technology will prevail within the next years for automotive application. These technological issues are influenced by economic decision and result in a diversity of product variants, a development of different battery cell designs and alternatives in production technologies. These circumstances show that battery cell production is an industry with a high pace of technological innovations and changes. In order to cope with these challenges, production systems need to be designed in a changeable manner. This research presents a methodology to assess the changeability of production systems for lithium ion and future battery technologies. Moreover, the paper provides insights into correlations and interdependencies between changeability indicators for immature product technologies. The method is implemented and validated for a battery cell production process for Li-ion and Li-sulfur batteries. Based on the evaluation of the current Li-ion technology, it gives guidelines for the design of a changeable battery cell production system to prepare for future challenges.