Visteon Corporation has developed a heat pump system that effectively utilizes ambient air and ancillary heat to improve cabin conditioning for hybrid and electric vehicles. By drawing less power from the lithium-ion battery, vehicles equipped with the heat pump system can operate longer on a single charge.
Combustion engines create waste heat that be used to warm the vehicle cabin. Since hybrid and electric vehicles generate considerably less heat, the climate system must produce heat for the cabin, a process that drains power from the battery. Visteon’s heat pump system transfers energy contained in the ambient air to cool and heat the cabin. Its electric compressor cools the cabin of a hybrid or electric vehicle by operating the refrigerant cycle in one direction, and heats the cabin by operating the cycle in the reverse direction.
This heat pump system consumes about 50 percent less power and can extend the number of miles driven on a battery charge by 30 percent. This electric vehicle data compares Visteon’s heat pump system to an electric heater during a New York City drive cycle at minus 10 degrees Celsius.