When the FSAE team decided to build an electric race car a few years ago, it seemed pretty likely that we could source our batteries from A123 Systems, an alumni company. They make very high quality lithium iron phosphate cells and battery packs. The packs we had hoped to get look like this:
It's a familiar story around here, but A123 went bankrupt and changed hands and we were never able to get any packs. However, we were able to get enough raw AMP20 cells for the pack we needed. A team member spent their thesis designing our custom pack based loosely on the A123 pack. I have somehow ended up on the battery sub-team and helped assemble one of our new modules. Bring on the photos.
