Integrated Energy Management for Electric Car Vehicles.

Identified problem
Today, the ICE (internal combustion engines) powers the electric safety and comfort features,
like brake force booster, power steering, air conditioning and heating. The electric vehicle has
to take the energy for these systems from the battery. In addition, the battery has to be
thermally managed to avoid damage and quick aging. Therefore, it is essential to minimize the
energy consumption of on-board safety and comfort systems to limit the negative impact on
the range of the electric vehicle.
Even if a lot of progress has occurred in terms of energy content related to volume and weight
of a modern battery, these characteristics remain about hundred times lower than that of
fuels for combustion engines. This fact is one of the main challenges for electric mobility, as it
influences both costs and usability. For this reason, the Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) will
mainly be used for urban and near-urban transportation. The required range of BEV under
everyday conditions (including energy for comfort functions such as heating, air conditioning,
etc.) in 2015 will be 150 km (250 km under ideal conditions). Targeted R&D will lead to 200 km
(300 km under ideal conditions) in 2020.

Objectives
BEV range can be increased either by reducing electricity consumption or by improving the
performance of the batteries. We intend to address both objectives in our project.
In terms of electricity saving we will address the main power hungry components of the DEV
with the aim to significantly reduce / optimize power consumption without affecting user
comfort and safety.
On the side of electricity generation we intend to develop new battery concepts which
combined with innovative power control approaches will result into an integrate energy
management system aimed at .

Our Solution
Among the heavy consumers of electricity in a car, we may mention the air-conditioning /
heating system. Air-conditioning has become an unavoidable commodity in most modern cars.
The performance of the air-conditioning system has influence not only on the comfort of the
driver, but also on its safety. However, according to IAV GmbH the energy needed for air
conditioning can reduce the traveling range of an e-vehicle by 50% and more
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http://www.indrive-simulator.com/wp-content/uploads/evs_paper_5_3_EN.pdf
Our proposal is to develop an innovative heat pump that would require far less power to heat
and cool the car and will also result in less weight and size required; thus extending battery
charge and range.
Our development will use molecular heaters based on Metallic organic frameworks (MOFs).
These crystalline lattices are formed out of metal ions bound to organic compounds. MOFs are
porous and can be calibrated to cause various chemical elements. This property allows to
control the condensation and evaporation of the coolant delivered to the car interior in an
efficient manner.
Another topic we will address is thermal and noise insulation. It is obvious the performance of
the heating / cooling system depends to a great extent on the insulation properties of the
bodyworks. On the other hand, noise insulation is also a must for drives comfort and directly
affects the perceived quality of the car. Unfortunately, insulation materials add to the weight
of the car and thus also affect its range. For that reason, we will develop iimproved thermal
and noise insulation approaches in order to reduce the energy demand for heating (cold
seasons) and A/C (hot seasons) without compromising the car lightness or even reducing it.
In more concrete terms, we will develop suitable aerogels to be used as car insulation
materials. The aerogels are very light and have outstanding thermal insulation properties.
Moreover they are fire-resistant. We will use advanced simulation technologies to achieve
optimisation of the thermal insulation in order to determine: the type of aerogel, deposition
process, amount, etc., taking into account constraints such as: price and weight. on the other
hand we will also work for the development of efficient production processes for aerogels.
On the side of noise insulation, we must mention electric cars are already very quiet. The
electrical motor practically radiates minimum vibrations and noise towards the environment or
the car interior. However, the need of insulation from the outside noise (including
aerodynamic noise) still remains. Furthermore, the required lightness of the chassis and
bodywork in electric cars usually find it difficult to dampen out enough the noise and
vibrations coming from the outside. In this regard, it will be interesting to assess the acoustic
insulation obtained with aerogels and in case it was not sufficient propose further sound
insulating systems: passive (sound insulating materials) and perhaps active (active control of
noise and vibrations). In particular explore the possibility of using active noise to reduce the
weight of the needed acoustic insulation material.
Battery efficiency will be another topic to be investigated in the project. We will develop new
battery types together with an innovative battery control system aimed at always running the
battery at the optimal point according to the demand of electricity.
The last element to be developed is an intelligent energy management system that will control
and supervise the different components of the vehicle with the aim to optimize their
performance and reduce energy consumption taking into account the drivers demands in
terms of comfort, range and car performance (i.e. speed and acceleration).