In gasoline-burning cars and trucks, waste heat from burning gasoline is tapped to heat up the cabin. But what about electric cars? They typically have to use electric heaters—or maybe not. A new patent, filed in 2020 by Michigan’s Craig Lindquist and Changchun Li and Italy’s Attilio Crivellari and just granted, would re-use waste heat in electric cars, too—a technology which could be handy in PHEVs as well as BEVs.
The idea is that a high-temperature coolant loop would be used for the heater core, while a low-temperature coolant loop would get heat from the electric motor(s) and electronics. A four-way valve would selectively “fluidly couple” the two loops so that heat generated by the motor(s), electronics, and possibly the battery would be used rather than dissipated.
Electric powertrain don’t really deliver all that much heat, but relying entirely on electric heaters clearly reduces the range of electric and plug-in hybrid cars. The system described in this patent could help to reduce the need for the electric heater.
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