The present disclosure relates to a stacked cell manufacturing scheme for battery modules. A disclosed method of manufacturing a battery module includes assembling a plurality of prismatic battery cells of the battery module into a cell stack. The method includes compressing the cell stack using an actuating clamping mechanism, inserting the cell stack into a housing of the battery module with the actuating clamping mechanism engaged with and compressing the cell stack, and removing the actuating clamping mechanism from the cell stack. The housing of battery module maintains a compression of the cell stack above a predetermined threshold in the battery module after removing the actuating clamping mechanism.