Stellantis patents a way for burning EVs to drop their battery and drive away

Stellantis has filed a US patent for a system that would let an electric car drop its battery pack during a fire and move itself clear of it.

The application, published by the company’s American arm FCA US and first reported by CarBuzz, sets out to stop a battery fire from making the whole vehicle a total loss. Its drawings show a car with the lines of a Dodge Challenger releasing its pack onto the road and pulling away.

The system could be triggered automatically by sensors, or manually through a lever or a button on the touchscreen. Pyrotechnic fasteners, the explosive bolts used in aerospace and defence, would sever the pack’s mountings so it falls from the underside of the car. An alternative design uses interlocking castellated frames that separate mechanically without relying on explosives.

Without its traction battery the car has no main source of propulsion, so the patent proposes using the conventional 12-volt battery to move it far enough from the pack to limit its exposure to the fire, potentially without any input from the driver. Dropping the pack also removes the car’s heaviest component, lifting the body on its suspension and adding clearance over the discarded battery.

It is the latest in a series of battery-fire patents from Stellantis. An application published in February 2025 described an EV exhaust that vents and chemically treats the flammable gases released when cells enter thermal runaway, and another granted last December covers a foam-based suppression system built into the pack.

A patent filing does not signal production intent; carmakers file many to protect ideas that never reach a showroom. Battery fires are uncommon, but a lithium-ion pack in thermal runaway is difficult to extinguish, which is the problem each of these filings addresses. Xiaomi’s response this month was a warranty rather than hardware, promising to replace any car whose new battery catches fire through a manufacturing defect.