Batteries & Fuel Cells
wBMS technology: the new competitive edge for EV manufacturers
By Norbert Bieler, director business development eMobility, and Paul Hartanto-Doeser, system technologist eMobility, Analog Devices
Figure 1. A typical complex, multi-component wired BMS network (left), and the simpler arrangement made possible by Analog Devices’ wBMS technology (right). T
esla’s massive investments in battery “gigafactories” and Volkswagen’s plan to build six dedicated battery production plants in Europe by 20301
that the battery has become the most strategically important component in the automotive industry.
Car manufacturers’ efforts to reduce the size, weight, and cost impacts of batteries over a vehicle’s complete life cycle, and to extend the driving range that the battery supports, will have a huge impact on their market share and competitiveness. As increasing numbers of older EVs reach the end of their life, car manufacturers will even be competing for the value derived from so-called second life batteries recovered from scrapped vehicles. The news headlines about battery developments tend to highlight research into the new and sometimes exotic materials that might one day be able to store more charge than today’s lithium technology; a completely different part of the battery – the battery management system (BMS), which monitors the state of charge (SOC) and state of health (SOH) of the battery – tends to go under the radar. But in fact, new wireless battery management system (wBMS) technology – developed by Analog Devices and pioneered
34 April 2026 indicate
by General Motors in its modular Ultium batteries – promises to give car manufacturers a new competitive edge across the whole of a battery’s life, starting from when battery modules are first assembled, to operation in an EV, beyond to disposal, and even into the battery’s second life.
Following GM’s release of the Hummer
the first of many models to feature a wBMS, Analog Devices ran a series production programme that demonstrated how our wire- free technology enables transformation of the design, production, servicing, and disposal of EV batteries.
EV,2
The cost, space, weight, and design problems associated with wired connections in the battery Analog Devices’ inspiration for the development of the wBMS technology was an analysis of the drawbacks of the communications wiring in conventional EV battery packs. This analysis drew on the company’s expertise: it supplies the market’s most accurate conventional BMS, and in the wireless communications field it is a leader in 5G radio technology. It also developed the world’s most robust mesh networking technology for industrial environments. In a conventional EV battery, wiring
Components in Electronics
supports communication between each cell in the battery pack and an electronic control unit (ECU), which regulates its operation to ensure that it provides power to the vehicle. This requirement for communications inside the battery reflects the complex architecture of a large battery pack: it is made up of modules, each of which contains multiple cells. Natural production variations mean that each cell has individual characteristics that vary within a specified tolerance range. To maximise battery capacity, lifetime, and performance, the key parameters of battery operation – voltage, charge/discharge current, and temperature – need to be monitored and logged individually for each module. This is the job of the cell monitoring units in the BMS.
But the data from each cell only become useful when they reach the BMS’s ECU, which controls the way power is supplied to and drawn from the battery, module by module, and maintains the battery’s safety functions. And this is why an EV’s battery requires a means to transfer data from each module – where voltage, current, and temperature are measured – to the ECU’s processor (see Figure 1). Traditionally these connections have been made with wires: wired connections have the advantage of being familiar and well understood.
But it is not difficult to compile a long list of disadvantages: a copper wiring harness is heavy, and occupies space that, if filled by a battery cell, would give extra energy capacity. Additionally, the connectors can potentially suffer from mechanical failure. In other words, wires increase development effort, manufacturing cost, and weight, while also reducing mechanical reliability and usable space. This results in reduced driving range. Get rid of the wiring harness, and the car manufacturer also gains new flexibility to design the form factor of the battery pack to fit the design requirements of the vehicle. The complexity of a battery’s wiring harness also makes the assembly of a battery pack difficult and expensive: wired packs must be assembled and the connections terminated manually. This is a costly and hazardous process because high voltage EV battery modules are supplied charged. To maintain the safety of the assembly process and to protect production line workers, rigorous safety protocols are applied.
The advantage provided by the Analog Devices modular and scalable wBMS system platform is that an OEM can fully automate battery pack assembly. After the elimination of the (signal) wiring harness, the only connections a battery module requires are
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