With a rapidly growing electric vehicle (EV) market, the demand for components and materials will rise too. EVs require a suite of fluids in order to operate optimally. The quantities and qualities of these fluids can change quite significantly between EVs and combustion engine vehicles. IDTechEx's new report "
Thermal Management for Electric Vehicles 2025-2035: Materials, Markets, and Technologies" predicts that over 880 million liters of coolant fluids will be required for electric cars in 2035, combining water-glycol, oils, refrigerants, and immersion fluids.
Water-glycol is used as the backbone of the thermal management system, being used to manage the battery, but also connect all of the thermal systems' components. Oils are required for lubrication and thermal management in drive units, and refrigerants manage the cabin's air conditioning.
Each of these components and fluids is evolving. To highlight a few interesting trends, there are vehicles using low conductivity WEG, oil cooled motors increasing their market share, and PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) becoming an increasing concern for refrigerants.
- EV thermal system architecture and fluids used
- Battery thermal management and trends
- Motor thermal management and trends
- Future refrigerants
- Outlook for fluid content and forecasts