MAHLE's integrated thermal management system can increase vehicle mileage by 7% -20%, depending on the specific design of the vehicle.
For a long time, the cruising range of electric vehicles has been the focus of consumers' attention, especially those in the north. They have their own worries about whether electric vehicles can withstand the test of -20 to 30 degrees below zero. Not only are consumers worried, car companies are also racking their brains on how to overcome the problem of winter endurance of electric vehicles, and many battery thermostatic systems have also come into being.
In order to further improve the winter mileage of electric vehicles and eliminate consumer concerns, MAHLE has developed an integrated thermal management system (ITS) based on heat pumps. This system can not only improve the electric vehicle's winter battery life. The mileage is up to 20%, and it also has certain control convenience and adaptability to future vehicle structures.
As everyone knows, due to the lack of stable and available waste heat of the engine, most electric vehicles currently use electric heaters and resistance heating to heat the cabin and heat the batteries in winter. In a low temperature environment, this causes an additional burden on the battery, which may cause a full-charged electric vehicle to halve its mileage in winter; the same is true in summer. The extra energy required for cabin cooling and battery cooling will cause battery life Shortened mileage.
In order to solve this problem, MAHLE integrates different thermal management components into a system that can operate in multiple modes-ITS. The core of the system is a cooler, indirect condenser, thermal expansion valve and electric compressor. Composed of semi-closed refrigerant circuit. Indirect condensers and coolers are equivalent to condensers and evaporators in traditional refrigerant circuits. Different from the traditional air-cooling method, the refrigerant in this system exchanges heat with the cooling liquid, so two types of cooling liquid flows, hot and cold, are generated. ITS uses R1234yf as the refrigerant, and the cooling fluid of traditional vehicles as the medium, which makes the vehicle's cooling circuit conduct heat conduction with various heat sources and heat sinks.
In a road test of a compact electric vehicle, MAHLE verified its ability to significantly reduce cruising range losses, especially in low-temperature environments. The original car with a traditional electric heating method has a range of 100 kilometers. After equipped with ITS, its range has increased to 116 kilometers.
"MAHLE's integrated thermal management system can increase vehicle mileage by 7% -20%, and the specific increase varies depending on the specific design of the model. It is worth mentioning that this system can significantly reduce the vehicle's mileage in winter Loss. "Said Laurent Art, former development director of Mahler Thermal Management.
As Laurent Art said, in addition to extending the cruising range, the flexible design and adaptability of ITS are its added advantages. Currently, MAHLE is using the climatic wind tunnel to perform control optimization and other series of tests on prototype vehicles equipped with ITS. In addition, MAHLE is working with some US OEM customers to carry out further performance and cost optimization efforts. It is believed that with the upgrade of these thermal management systems, the problem of climate impact of electric vehicles will further change.