PACCAR

Battery Pack Mechanical Mounting & Thermal Interface

The E-Truck Challenge began in late 2023 through a partnership with PACCAR to retrofit a Class 7 Peterbilt truck into an all-electric vehicle over four years. The effort grew to include a broader UW student engagement through a Registered Student Organization (RSO) focused on giving participants hands-on experience with industry components, software, and engineering practices while advancing cleaner transportation. Within that larger vehicle conversion effort, this capstone project addressed a need to integrate CATL battery strings into the truck architecture with secure mounting and safe connections to the cooling and high-voltage electrical systems. The students worked to define battery, high-voltage junction box, and S-Box locations and develop a complete design for mounting and connecting the battery system within the vehicle.