Patent ID: 7883793

Claim:
A battery module, comprising: a first battery cell assembly having at least first, second, third and fourth alignment-coupling features thereon; and a second battery cell assembly having at least fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth alignment-coupling features thereon, the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth alignment-coupling features of the second battery cell assembly configured to engage the first, second, third and fourth alignment-coupling features, respectively, of the first battery cell assembly to couple the second battery cell assembly to the first battery cell assembly and to align the second battery cell assembly relative to the first battery cell assembly, wherein the first battery cell assembly comprises: a first rectangular ring-shaped frame member having a first side and a second side, the second side of the first rectangular ring-shaped frame member having at least ninth tenth eleventh and twelfth and twelfth alignment-coupling features thereon; a first battery cell having a first side and a second side, the second side of the first battery cell contacting at least a portion of the second side of the first rectangular ring-shaped frame member; a second battery cell having a first side and a second side, the first side of the second battery cell contacting the second side of the first battery cell; and a second rectangular ring-shaped frame member having a first side and a second side, the first side of the second rectangular ring-shaped frame member having at least thirteenth, fourteenth fifteenth and sixteenth alignment-coupling features thereon, the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth alignment-coupling features of the second rectangular ring-shaped frame member configured to engage the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth alignment-coupling features, respectively, of the first rectangular ring-shaped frame member to couple the second rectangular ring-shaped frame member to the first rectangular ring-shaped frame member to align the second rectangular ring-shaped frame member relative to first rectangular ring-shaped frame member.