Cell-to-body — the pack as floor

In a cell-to-pack car the battery is a sealed box bolted underneath a floor. In a cell-to-body car there is no separate floor: the upper cover of the pack is the surface you sit on, and the sides of the pack carry crash loads into the sills.

Why it matters when buying

The car gets lower, stiffer and slightly lighter for the same battery, which improves both handling and range. Manufacturers using this approach usually quote a torsional rigidity figure, and it is one of the few structural numbers that translates directly into how solid a car feels over broken surfaces.

The consequence is that battery and body are no longer independent. Structural damage near the sills is battery damage, and a pack replacement is closer to major bodywork than to a component swap. Before buying, the questions worth asking are who in your market is authorised to perform structural repair on the model, and whether the insurer has priced that in. Neither is a question about the car itself, which is precisely why both get overlooked.

Related: cell-to-pack · blade battery · residual value