TotalEnergies Lubrifiants said it made history four years ago by equipping a hybrid road car with an immersion-cooled battery. The vehicle used its “Cell-Shield” immersion cooling technology. On March 6, the company introduced a prototype of a mass-market vehicle that features immersion cooling.

TotalEnergies applied its technology to a road vehicle in 2022. It replaced the battery cooling system of a Volvo XC90 plug-in hybrid with an immersion system and its “Cell-Shield” fluid. The company said results were immediate: faster charging, better cooling, increased safety, and reduced cost and weight. All of this occurred without requiring any modifications to the battery or vehicle design.

TotalEnergies Integrates Immersion Cooling Technology in a Consumer Car

Now, TotalEnergies Lubrifiants has integrated an immersion-cooled battery into a mass-market vehicle, the 100% electric Renault Mégane E-Tech. The company also proved the system’s feasibility for large-scale integration at a limited cost.

Immersion cooling has emerged as the ideal solution for ultra-fast charging, TotalEnergies said. On this demonstrator vehicle, immersion cooling reduced the charge time by half and boosted the vehicle’s autonomy by 6%. This technology eliminates the challenges of heat buildup in lithium cells.

TotalEnergies’ Innovation Promises Impact for the EV Industry

“We are very proud of the trust the car manufacturers have placed in us for this innovative project. Our work has demonstrated the immense potential of immersion cooling with the fluids developed by our research & development teams. The fact that we have succeeded in grafting our system onto a production vehicle demonstrates its potential on a large scale,” said Pascal Correia, director of technology & product engineering at TotalEnergies Lubrifiants.