A review of battery cold plates for electric vehicles: design, manufacturing, and recovery

Battery cold plates link temperature control to the manufacture, assembly and recovery of electric vehicle battery packs. Channel improvements become useful components when thermal performance, production integrity and end-of-life access are qualified together. This Mini Review develops that component perspective through a focused narrative synthesis of recent literature, mainly from 2026. It connects channel design, joining, thermal interfaces and life-cycle assessment through three qualification gates. Representative published results show the scale and context of the design choices. In one modeled square-plate case, bidirectional flow reduced the temperature spread at the thermal interface surface from 2.0 °C to 0.62 °C. In a separate life-cycle study of a switchable heat-pipe system, its aluminum cooling plate contributed 86% of production-phase climate impact. These results identify both thermal and material priorities within their respective systems. The proposed gates require thermal–hydraulic results, production evidence and recovery evidence to describe the same plate configuration. A common qualification record can then support design transfer and supplier comparison. Priorities are matched thermal benchmarks, durability tests of the assembled plate and interface, and measured disassembly and recovery outcomes.