Patent ID: 7858220

Claim:
A battery array comprising: a holder case including a pair of opposed sidewalls, an inlet panel disposed at a first end of the opposed sidewalls, and an outlet panel disposed at a second end of the opposed sidewalls, wherein the opposed sidewalls, the inlet panel and the outlet panel form an enclosed chamber; and at least three battery modules disposed in the enclosed chamber of the holder case so as to be stacked in at least three levels in a direction of cooling air flow through the enclosed chamber and across the battery modules, each of the battery modules comprising a plurality of individual battery cells connected in a straight-line manner, wherein: the battery modules includes a first battery module, a second battery module and a third battery module disposed in order from the inlet panel toward the outlet panel, the inlet panel has air intakes located on both sides to introduce cooling air into the enclosed chamber so that cooling air introduced from the air intakes flows between the battery modules and the opposed sidewalls; the outlet panel has an exhaust opening opened at a center region thereof to exhaust cooling air from the enclosed chamber to the outside of the holder case so that cooling air that flows along battery module surfaces is expelled to the outside of the holder case from the center region; and a region of the opposed sidewalls opposing the first battery module is formed in a planar shape, a region of the opposed sidewalls opposing the second battery module is formed in a planar shape at an inlet panel side and formed in a curved shape that conforms to a surface of the second battery module at an outlet panel side, and a region of the opposed sidewalls opposing the third battery module is formed in a curved shape that conforms to a surface of the third battery module, first cooling gaps are formed between the first battery module and the opposed sidewalls where the first battery module is close to inner surfaces of the opposed sidewalls; second cooling gaps are formed between the second battery module and the opposed sidewalls opposing the second battery module; third cooling gaps are formed between the third battery module and opposed sidewalls opposing the third battery module; and the conformal area, where the opposed sidewalls conform to the contour of the second battery module, of the second cooling gaps is less than half a battery module perimeter, and the third cooling gaps are narrower than the second cooling gaps at the conformal areas.