October 13, 2026 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is deeply involved in the development of safety-critical battery systems. With markets requiring higher rates of charge/discharge (C-rate) to meet application demands, modern batteries are being pushed to their limits. SwRI has developed two new products to meet those demands, offering significant improvements in overall system control as well as module-level cooling.
SwRI’s highly customizable and modular battery management system (BMS) supports a wide range of battery chemistries and voltages for vehicles and safety critical, high-performance and large-scale applications. SwRI’s BMS is a combined software and hardware solution that can be integrated into a full spectrum of vehicle and industry applications.
Battery packs are the core component of electric vehicles. Optimized battery pack management is crucial to ensuring their longevity, safety and reliability while also preventing potential failures.
“Traditional management systems often lack the scalability and adaptability required for more complex, high-performance applications,” said Dr. Faisal Uppal, a manager in SwRI’s Powertrain Engineering Division. “SwRI’s modular battery management solution addresses the demands that come from increasingly diverse battery chemistries, unique powertrain configurations and new regulatory standards.”
SwRI’s BMS is designed to support a wide range of battery applications, including hybrid and electric vehicles, off-road vehicles, locomotives, aerospace and marine equipment. It can also handle stationary power systems that require a long service life, such as grid energy storage and back-up power for data centers.
Additionally, SwRI recently developed a battery module architecture that delivers uniform cooling of both the battery cells and the busbars, which serve to conduct and distribute electrical power, of large-format cells. This approach facilitates safe operation at high C-rates while dramatically lowering system-level loss of coolant during pumping and virtually eliminates the need for high-cost thermal interface materials.
SwRI ensures a quick concept-to-hardware approach in safety-critical battery design by leveraging a combination of specialized analysis techniques, machine learning, genetic algorithms and additive manufacturing to achieve quick turnaround on early prototypes.
“SwRI’s module architecture is designed to address a need in the industry for a battery system that can ensure that applications using battery packs can operate reliably, efficiently and safely over long periods of time,” said SwRI Principal Engineer Dustin Kramer. “From safety-critical, high-cost systems to hybrid or EV vehicles, this solution is designed to meet the full spectrum of battery management needs.”
SwRI will be exhibiting research expertise, capabilities and more at The Battery Show North America on Oct. 13 – Oct. 15, 2026, in Detroit. SwRI will be presenting at booth number 2635.
For more information, visit Battery Testing & Research or contact Jesús Chávez at +1 210 522 2258, Communications Department, Southwest Research Institute, 6220 Culebra Road, San Antonio, TX 78238-5166.