Rust: Batteries Included — Inside Volvo Cars' EV Battery
Talkat RustConf 2026 · on Wednesday, 2026-09-09· at 11:05· Room 510ac | Palais des Congrès de Montréal, Palais des Congrès de Montréal·
summary
Volvo builds a battery that replaces eight separate power electronics modules by making each six-cell cluster actively switchable with an H‑bridge, saving roughly 20% of drivetrain cost if scaled. Clusters run wireless (Bluetooth‑frequency proprietary radio), synchronize to create 800V AC from 50+ clusters, and meet hard realtime: master broadcasts 4,000 messages/sec with 200 µs end‑to‑end and 40 kHz control loops. Firmware is mostly Rust using RTIC, a Rust bootloader, probe‑rs testing, and a rebuilt XC40 demonstrator that drives successfully.
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chapters (10)
- 0:00Introduction and background
- 3:41Discovery of SmartCell project
- 5:19What is an electric vehicle
- 8:06SmartCell concept explained
- 13:57Real-time challenges and Rust fit
- 21:42Why Rust for SmartCell
- 24:09System architecture and compliance
- 27:16Development and testing approach
- 30:03Current project status
- 31:19Q&A session
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