Electric Car Heating System

The early nissan leafs pre 2013 used resistive heating.

Electric car heating system.

An electric vehicle is approx 80 energy efficient meaning there is some waste heat available from the power electronics the motor and battery pack. Nissan leaf is the first mass produced vehicle in the world to employ a heat pump cabin heater. However the chevy volt offers heated driver and front passenger seats and. The dr 975 uses spiral steel metal sheath electric heating elements with low sheath temperatures providing uniform heat and long lasting product life.

An electric car does things differently because there is no engine and so delivering power to the ac and just about everything else is determined by the amount of stored battery energy. In traditional vehicles the engine provides the power for the hvac heating ventilation and air conditioning system. Electric car drivers now have one more reason to love the summer because in the winter the vehicle s range declines markedly due to the additional energy demanded by the heating system. The more rapidly you discharge a battery the more heat it generates.

In production evs most of these parts have a liquid coolant system so cabin heating can be plumbed in exactly like a conventional car heater system and or into climate controlled seats. In climates where electric cars are or will be a major part of the transportation load from now on consumers demand efficient and powerful heating and cooling in their vehicles. That s a big disadvantage. It greatly improves power consumption when the heater is being used.

A heat pump cabin heater has been adopted for heating an electric vehicle ev using less power than conventional models. Batteries work based on the principle of a voltage differential and at high temperatures the electrons inside become excited which decreases the difference in voltage between the two sides of the battery. In extremely cold environments we could see as much as a 50 percent loss in range for a battery electric car. In electric cars discharging the battery generates heat.