A smarter EV battery that simply routes around its weakest cells

An electric-car battery usually dies when its weakest cell does — one tired cell throttles the whole pack. Doctoral researcher Albert Škegro and colleagues at Sweden's Chalmers University of Technology, working with Scania and PHINIA, designed a pack whose electronic switches disconnect aging cells and reroute current through healthier ones. Large-scale computer models, published in Nature Communications, suggest an 80-kilowatt-hour pack could last over 20 percent longer — roughly 14 extra months — enough to offset the added electronics cost. Real-vehicle testing is still needed to confirm the simulated gains.