In this exclusive op-ed for The Manufacturer, Zotefoams’ Sam Norman argues that as EV adoption accelerates toward 2030, advanced foam materials in battery pack architecture will be critical to balancing safety, durability, manufacturability and weight reduction, helping OEMs deliver reliable, high-performance electric vehicles at scale.
With 2030 just around the metaphorical corner, the race to make electric vehicles (EVs) truly mainstream is entering its most demanding phase. As a result, manufacturers are tasked with mass rollout that ensures EVs are practical, safe and competitive at scale. And as the technology in this space becomes increasingly sophisticated, a significant opportunity is in the pack’s ‘supporting architecture’ – that is, the materials and components that manage spacing, vibration, insulation and protection around the cells. This is where designers fight for millimetres and grams to protect cells, maintain performance and meet ever-tighter safety expectations.
The UK landscape demonstrates just how quickly those pressures are intensifying. For example, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) recently reported that the UK new car market reached 2.02 million registrations in 2025, with almost one in four buyers going electric and nearly half a million new battery-electric vehicles joining the road. But more vehicles means more packs, more platforms and more scrutiny of the decisions that sit behind real-world range and safety performance.
What’s happening inside the battery pack
If we home in on the power behind the propulsion, EV batteries are a critical component of the picture. However, a battery pack is not a single structure; it is a layered assembly of cells, electrical interconnects, cooling systems, enclosure structures, and the functional materials designed to keep everything stable through years of vibration, thermal cycling and varying load conditions.
What’s more, battery designs are only set to become more tightly packed as manufacturers seek to increase energy density and packaging efficiency within limited space. This equates to even less room for the natural changes in the dimension of battery cells as they charge and discharge.
This is where advanced foams like ZOTEK® T can play a quietly influential role in the future of the sector. In practical terms, foams do critical jobs that are easy to overlook until they fail. They can help manage vibration and shock, provide physical separation and cushioning, support insulation strategies and maintain safe compression where cell expansion and assembly tolerances need controlling.
The value is not primarily that foam is ‘light’, but that it can hold its shape and compression over time. In a battery pack, that resilience matters because it helps maintain consistent spacing and contact pressure across years of vibration, thermal cycling and manufacturing tolerances. In practice, the key is long-term compression behaviour – including low compression set (how well the foam springs back after being squeezed) and resistance to creep (slow deformation under sustained load) – so the pack stays within design tolerances rather than drifting over time. Weight reduction remains a welcome secondary benefit – particularly where it contributes to overall vehicle efficiency.
Of course, as EV sales rise, battery safety rules are tightening too. In markets that use UNECE vehicle regulations, manufacturers typically need to demonstrate compliance with UNECE R100 – a UN rulebook covering safety requirements for EV electrical systems and the battery pack. In practice, this means providing evidence from two broad types of testing:
Validation testing is about proving the pack stays safe over its working life in real-world conditions – for example, through thermal cycling, vibration, ageing and repeated use.
Abuse testing is about proving how the pack behaves when something goes wrong – such as overheating, electrical faults or physical damage – and whether the design helps contain the risk, rather than letting it escalate.
This context is pushing original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and Tier 1 suppliers to treat pack safety as a whole-system engineering challenge, combining cell selection, pack architecture, cooling, sensing, venting and containment measures – rather than relying on any single material or component.
Within that system, fire-retardant, low-density foams can contribute in meaningful ways. Foam components like Plastazote® FR can help reduce the likelihood of mechanical damage from vibration or impact, support electrical isolation, and, in some designs, act as part of a layered thermal barrier approach when combined with other pack-level protections.
Of course, every EV is different, and the right approach is to specify foams against defined functions and validate them in the context of the full system, including how they behave under compression, ageing, elevated temperatures and exposure to relevant chemicals over the life of the vehicle.
Why ‘every gram matters’ in EVs
For the wider automotive industry, weight has long been a design constraint, but EVs have made the challenge more visible than ever. Much has been made of the EV range debate; battery capacity is expensive and heavy, and while powertrains have become highly efficient, physics still applies. Add mass to a vehicle and you need more energy to move it; more structure to carry it – and often more battery to maintain the same usable range. That becomes a compounding loop: more cells increase mass, which increases the load on suspension, tyres and braking systems – which in turn adds weight and cost elsewhere.
As such, lightweighting in the EV sector is not just about shaving a few kilograms off a vehicle’s weight; it can influence early, platform-level choices such as battery size and layout, structural design and how space is allocated for safety and cooling. Reduce mass and an OEM can potentially extend range without enlarging the pack; maintain range with fewer cells and less cost; or free up packaging space for crash structures, cooling, or cabin comfort. In a sector where media scrutiny is heavy and consumers still judge EVs by the distance between charges and the confidence they feel about battery safety, these ‘small’ material choices inside the pack start to look strategically important.
What OEMs and Tier 1s should look for in next-gen material specifications
As the next generation of EVs move from innovation to scaled rollout, component selection must be driven by clear practical requirements.
The first question is functional: what job is the foam doing, and what does success look like after years of real-world use? That might mean focusing on long-term compression behaviour, resistance to creep and compression set, and the ability to maintain performance through thermal cycling and vibration without drifting out of tolerance. It also means understanding the thermal role the material plays – whether it is insulating, maintaining spacing, cushioning, or helping sustain consistent stack pressure.
The second question is of manufacturability. Technical performance is rendered meaningless if a material cannot be shaped, bonded, assembled and inspected consistently at scale. Thermoformability, dimensional repeatability and compatibility with automated processes all matter as the pack is increasingly a high-throughput manufacturing problem as much as an engineering one.
The third question is about assurance. EV supply chains expect traceability, stable specifications and clear validation data – especially for components that sit close to the cell. Material suppliers must provide the evidence trail that OEMs and Tier 1s require for safety cases, platform updates and regulatory alignment. That combination of durability, process compatibility and documented performance is what turns a ‘support material’ into an enabler of safer, longer-range vehicles.
In an industry that often spotlights headline breakthroughs, the less visible work of getting battery packs to perform consistently at scale can be overlooked. In practice, competitive advantage is increasingly won through repeatable compression performance and cost discipline – materials that hold tolerances through vibration and thermal cycling and can be manufactured and assembled reliably in volume.
As EV volumes rise and competitive margins tighten, the winners will be the manufacturers who treat the battery pack not merely as a box of cells, but as a finely optimised system where advanced, lightweight materials help deliver the range and safety outcomes that OEMs require – and end users actually notice.
About the author
Sam Norman is head of business development for transport and smart technologies at Zotefoams, a global foam manufacturer whose advanced foam materials enable lightweight, high-performance applications for globally recognised brands such as Boeing, Airbus and Nike.
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