The patent, made public on Oct. 22, places gas vents on the underside of each battery cell and channels the searing gases released during thermal runaway out through a passage built into the pack's lower cover.
The layout merges two compartments, one for venting gas and another for absorbing external shocks, into a single space, freeing up room for higher energy density.
Five Hyundai and Kia researchers and two from Samsung SDI are named as inventors.
The pack is built around Samsung SDI's prismatic cells, which the company has supplied since this year under its first Hyundai deal, signed in October 2023. The contract runs through 2032 and covers Europe-bound EVs, using cells from its plant in Hungary.
The three companies have also filed nine joint patents on all-solid-state batteries, dubbed "dream batteries" for their longer range and lower fire risk, between 2022 and 2025. Their focus has shifted from coating moisture-sensitive sulfide electrolytes toward cell life and mass-production processes.
Samsung Electronics on Nov. 9 hosted 177 executives from both groups and their spouses in Yongin, south of Seoul, in their first group-level exchange. The ties date to 2020, when the groups' heirs at the time, Lee Jae-yong and Chung Eui-sun, toured each other's battery and research sites.
"Samsung and Hyundai Motor Group are going beyond cooperation in vehicle parts such as electronics, audio and batteries, and broadening the possibilities of cooperation in future industries such as robots and energy," Jang Jae-hoon, vice chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, said at the event.
AJP Takeaways
- Hyundai Motor, Kia and Samsung SDI jointly designed an EV battery pack that routes thermal-runaway gases through the pack's lower cover, according to a patent made public on Oct. 22, 2026.
- The three companies filed nine joint all-solid-state battery patents between 2022 and 2025, with Samsung SDI as lead applicant on seven.
- Samsung SDI began supplying prismatic batteries in 2026 for Hyundai Motor's Europe-bound EVs under a deal signed in October 2023 that runs through 2032.
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