Electric and hybrid vehicles have become widespread in large cities due to the desire for environmentally friendly technologies, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and fuel, and economic advantages over gasoline and diesel vehicles. In electric vehicles, overheating, vibration, or mechanical damage due to collision with an object or another vehicle can lead to the failure of lithium-ion batteries up to thermal runaway and fire. Therefore, the development of battery safety control systems is one of the most important factors contributing to the large-scale electrification of public and private transport. This review examines the design features of the location and management of the battery pack to achieve maximum safety and operational efficiency when using an electric vehicle. The power characteristics and life-cycles of various types of lithium-ion batteries depending on the chemical nature of their electrodes are considered, using the example of commercial vehicles’—Tesla, Nissan Leaf, Porsche Taycan, Zeekr, and Chevrolet Volt—strategic technologies for the placement and packaging of batteries, and battery cooling and monitoring systems (State of Health and State of Charge) are also discussed. In conclusion, the current challenges in the field are summarized and promising research directions are proposed.

The adoption of silicon-graphite composites as anode materials for the next generation of lithium-ion batteries with enhanced specific capacity requires complex technological efforts in order to mitigate the problem of the quick performance fading of electrodes due to the mechanical degradation of materials. The matter is currently being addressed in terms of electrolyte components, polymer binders, materials structure and morphology itself, as well as current collector design, which differ greatly in cost and scalability. The present work describes the efficacy of Cu foil perforation—a simple, low-cost, and easily scalable approach—as a means of Si/C composite anode performance stabilization during extensive charge-discharge cycling. The NMC||Si/C pouch-type full cells demonstrated over 90% of initial capacity retention after 100 charge-discharge cycles in the case of a 250 µm perforated Cu foil used as a current collector, compared to only 60% capacity left in the same conditions for plain Cu foil as an anode. The obtained result is related to the prevention of anode material delamination off the foil surface as a result of silicon expansion and contraction, which is achieved through the formation inter-penetrating metal-composite structure and the presence of “stitches”, connecting and holding both sides of the electrode tightly attached to the current collector.

Silicon-graphite anodes offer a practical route to increase the energy density of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), but their widespread adoption is hampered by cyclic instability due to huge volume changes of silicon during lithiation/delithiation process. Another fallout of LIBs capacity gain is growing safety concerns due to fire risks, associated with the uncontrolled release of chemical energy. Herein, we test a hexakis(fluoroethoxy)phosphazene (HFEPN) as a multifunctional electrolyte additive designed to mitigate both issues. The flammability of HFEPN-containing electrolytes was evaluated using a self-extinguishing time test, while the electrochemical performance was assessed in Si/C composite||NMC pouch cells under a progressively accelerated cycling protocol. It is shown that the additive fully imparts flame-retardant properties to the electrolyte at a 15 wt% loading. Despite forming a more stable solid–electrolyte interphase (SEI) with enhanced interfacial kinetics the additive did not improve the cycling stability of the Si/C-based cells. The cells with 15 wt% HFEPN retained 43% of capacity after 70 cycles, comparable to 46.5% for the reference electrolyte. The diffusion limitations imposed by the increased electrolyte viscosity are assumed to offset the interfacial benefits of the additive. Thus, alongside the improved synthetic route, this study demonstrates that while HFEPN functions as an effective flame retardant and SEI modifier, its practical benefits for silicon anodes are limited at high concentrations by detrimental effects on electrolyte transport properties and should be improved in future molecular design efforts.