The CALB 6s2p modules are another good battery option for tight spaces and higher voltages.
These modules were actually my number one choice for the Renault Twingo as I would be able to perfectly fit 12 modules of these with cooling plates into the original battery box in two layers separated by a cooling plate. Here’s a quick drawing I made just to see how they would fit:
Let’s go into some technical details of these:
One module is 22.2V nominal and 100Ah, which translates into 2.2 kWh per module.
To do the same calcualtions as with the other batteries, here’s what we would get for the Twingo:
Voltage: 12 x 22.2V=266.4V which would be absolutely perfect as we have a target voltage of 270V.
Engergy: 12 x 2.2kWh = 26.4kWh total capacity (very good!), density 26.4kWh/116 Litres = 0.227 kWh/Litre of space in the battery box. This is slightly higher than the Samsung SDI modules which come in at 0.214 kWh/Litre but still lower than the Tesla modules that come in at 0.274 kWh/Litre.
There is a very good source in Europe for these modules: Zero EV in the UK are doing a brilliant job in configuring whole battery packs with cooling plates, piping, busbars and everything. Check out their Mazda MX-5 Miata Conversion with these very same battery modules on Youtube where you see how these packs are assembled:
They use 10 modules in the Video, two less than I would have put in my Twingo.
So why didn’t I go ahead with these modules in the end?
Reading the technical sheets of these batteries I noticed that these modules are meant to be used in a normal position or flipped to their side by 90 degrees, but NOT mounted upside down (flipped by 180 degrees)! Not exactly sure where the problem would be, but I am not a huge fan of shortcuts when it comes to battery safety.
In my setup, I would have mounted 4 battery modules per cooling plate, and put the cooling plates into the box in a horizontal way. So the lower 2 modules would of course be upside down.
Zero EV cooling plates for CALB modules, taken from the Zero EV Webiste.
If I wouldn’t have identified a different, equally good solution in terms of size and voltage, I would probably have gone ahead with these CALB modules, as they are fitting so perfectly both in terms of size and voltage!
