GM’s Ultium Energy Recovery System Helps EVs Conserve Battery Energy
General Motors has announced plans to fit its Ultium-based electric vehicles with a new heat pump technology that can boost range, performance and charging speeds. However, despite all its environmental benefits, the one area where EVs fall short is in their stability and efficacy in cold weather. While manufacturers generally rely on resistance heaters to draw power from the battery to heat the cabin, some modern EVs are now using heat pumps for that purpose.
Unlike resistance heaters, heat pumps do not generate any heat. Instead, they transfer heat from the source to the target area using refrigerants as the transfer medium, much like air-conditioners. The technology can be used to improve a vehicle's power and range when compared to cars with similar-sized batteries. Tesla already uses the technology on many of its vehicles, including its Model Y, Model 3 and Model S Plaid, while Polestar uses it on the Polestar 2.
In its press release on Monday, GM said that all its Ultium-based EVs will ship with its newly-patented heat pump that will recover redundant energy from the battery "to power heating and propulsion while also helping to conserve range." According to GM, not only do Ultium's energy recovery capabilities increase range by up to 10 percent, but they also help more efficient charging by warming up the batteries before charging. The Ultium platform also helps recover wasted heat energy from a vehicle's batteries, electronics and other propulsion components to heat the cabin more quickly in cold weather than typical heaters used in cars with internal combustion engines.
As an example of the Ultium platform's energy recovery system used in a production vehicle, GM said that the Hummer EV's 'Watts to Freedom' feature helps pre-cool its propulsion system to enable it to accelerate from 0-60 mph in just about three seconds. Elaborating on the new feature, GM's Executive Vice President Doug Parks said that it had been made possible by the company's decision to have a ground-up EV architecture.
GM has already announced a ton of new EVs that are either already in the market or will be available for purchase in the next couple of years. That includes the Hummer EV, which was announced in 2020 and has been sold out until 2024. Some of the other electric vehicles from GM include the Lyric, the upcoming Blazer EV and the Chevy Silverado that was announced a few months back. General Motors' press release suggests that all these vehicles will come with the new energy conservation technology, which would be good news for buyers in terms of range, performance and charging speeds.
Source: GM