Reducing the energy consumption for comfort and thermal conditioning in EVs

One of the biggest barriers towards large scale adoption of electric and plug-in hybrid cars is still range limitation due to limited storage capacity of electric batteries. The air conditioning system for passenger comfort and the thermal conditioning system (battery and powertrain) are main auxiliary consumers in EVs with respect to energy consumption. Therefore, the Horizon 2020 project "OPTEMUS" proposes to tackle this bottleneck by leveraging low energy consumption and energy harvesting through a holistic vehicle-occupant-centred approach. This manuscript presents the approach of the project and first simulation results of the air conditioning system including a heat pump. This system is capable of using the ambient air or a preconditioned battery as heat source.