A review of research needs in nondestructive evaluation for quality verification in electric vehicle lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing

The world is rapidly shifting from internal combustion engine vehicles to battery electric vehicles (EV). EV battery manufacturing requires nondestructive evaluation (NDE) solutions for quality verification that can operate under a unique set of constraints, including extremely fast cycle times, small geometric scales, and conductive materials. Individually, the demands imposed by many of these constraints can be met with existing technologies. As a collective, however, they prove challenging to conventional NDE technologies. It is therefore imperative that NDE methods and technologies drastically evolve to keep pace with this disruptive paradigm shift. The goal of this paper is to provide a summary of the current research needs for NDE in EV battery cell manufacturing. •Rapid disruptive shift from internal combustion engine to battery electric vehicles.•Nondestructive evaluation (NDE) necessary for first-time quality EV batteries.•NDE for Li-ion cell manufacturing difficult due to many simultaneous constraints.•NDE technologies must drastically evolve to keep pace with cell manufacturing.•Research gaps are identified and presented for NDE in EV battery manufacturing.