Immersion Cooling Gains Strong Momentum at the Munich Thermal Management Conference
The 5th Annual Automotive EV & HEV Thermal Management Conference in Munich clearly demonstrated that immersion cooling has become a central topic in advanced thermal management discussions.
Throughout the event, immersion cooling was one of the most visible and debated technical themes. Audience engagement showed that the industry is increasingly evaluating when large-scale automotive adoption will occur—rather than if.
Converging Market Drivers
Two major developments shaped the discussions:
1. Chinese battery safety and propagation regulations
Stricter non-propagation requirements are pushing OEMs and suppliers to reconsider cooling architectures, safety validation strategies, and pack-level design robustness.
2. Rapid growth of immersion cooling in data centers
With AI-driven compute demand accelerating rack densities, immersion cooling has gained significant traction in data centers—raising expectations that automotive could follow.
Several exchanges addressed whether these two drivers together mark a tipping point for broader implementation in vehicles.
Data Centers and PUE: Cross-Industry Learning
A substantial number of questions focused on immersion-cooled data center design:
- How these facilities are engineered
- Which companies are actively deploying them
- The interpretation and relevance of PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) in immersion architectures
This underlined the growing importance of cross-industry knowledge transfer—one of GICA’s core objectives.
Technical Highlights and Industry Presence
Beyond the GICA presentation:
- HORIBA MIRA presented simulation methodologies for immersion-cooled battery systems, generating strong technical interest. HORIBA MIRA is a UK-based engineering and testing organization specializing in automotive development, validation, and advanced mobility technologies.
- WATTALPS exhibited its immersion-cooled battery systems in the exhibition area, attracting sustained attention. WATTALPS is a French battery manufacturer focused on high-performance, immersion-cooled modular packs for demanding mobility and off-highway applications.
GICA members APL and Carrar directly participated in the conference and contributed to the technical discussions.
A Clear Signal of Market Readiness
Immersion cooling was one of the defining topics of the conference. The depth of the discussions—covering safety compliance, system architecture, simulation, and efficiency metrics—indicates increasing technological maturity and serious market consideration.
The Munich conference confirmed that immersion cooling is now firmly embedded in strategic conversations across automotive and high-density computing. For GICA, this reinforces the importance of coordinated standardization efforts and continued cross-industry collaboration.
The momentum is clearly building.
