The thermal management of electrified vehicles

CESA abstract

When running on pure electric mode, electrified vehicles offer a very efficient energy conversion. Less than 3 kW in average is needed to drive an EV over an urban cruise. Consequently, the management of additional power demands of thermal functions, e.g. the cooling or the heating of the vehicle passenger cabin, or that of battery and power electronics, has a major impact on the overall vehicle power balance. A new system approach for thermal management, combining an innovative architecture, dedicated technologies and relevant control strategy, becomes decisive to offer a significant cruising range, secure the battery life time and also ensure quick engine response.
Within the scope of Vega/Thop, a cooperative project including six partners (Valeo, Renault, Saint Gobain Sekurit, Hutchinson, INSA/Cethil, LINC) funded by Ademe, a new thermal architecture was designed, prototyped and tested on benches and lab cars in order to assess the potential of such innovative thermal concept.

This paper outlines the main challenges and the outputs of this project:
- the review of thermal needs, with a focus on the passenger cabin requirements for comfort, and their associated impact on vehicle performances at system level;
- the way to drastically reduce the cabin thermal needs with same perceived comfort, combining cabin treatment, advanced air management and alternative comfort strategy;
- the setting up of a new thermal architecture that combines heat networking, recovery and storage capabilities, looking for synergies between thermal needs and heat losses so as to minimize consumption.
- the implementation of a heat pump to leverage “free” low temperature heat sources, such as ambient air or internal heat inertia and losses
- the benefit of a transient control strategy, in order to manage different operating modes and related “ramp up” or cycling phases, according to the vehicle usage profile.
As a conclusion, typical power savings compared to current serial EV will be presented on different scenarii, based on the results from tests campaigns and simulations analyses.

By Daniel Neveu (R&D program manager, Valeo Thermal Systems) and Osoko Shonda (Innovation Project Leader, Renault).

Valeo presents next generation automated parking at ITS Vienna

While the system on the market offers parking space detection and automatic steering with the driver operating the pedals and gears, Valeo is already preparing the next generation.
Maybe some of you remember the Park4U Remote application (World Premiere at 2011 IAA show, Frankfurt) that demonstrated a fully-automatic parking keeping the control via a smartphone.
But you can seen an even more impressive demo at Vienna.

Valeo steals the show at the ITS World Congress with Valet Park4U. In this case, the driver can now even leave the car at the entrance of the parking lot letting the car finding a suitable space and parking itself.

Of course, the driver is keeping the control via his/her Smartphone.

Valeo wants to give access to smartphone services through the central console

Valeo leverages the MirrorLink™ technology to give drivers access to their favorite mobile applications via the dashboard. It lets drivers use the vehicle's on-board control, display and sound systems, thus making the most of the central console, which is wider and more manageable in a car than a smartphone.
Valeo has drawn on the expertise of Nokia’s Qt team to design this interface between vehicle and smartphone. The MirrorLinkTM technology solution, developed by the Car Connectivity Consortium, of which Nokia is a founding member, offers access to phone services and applications from the vehicle's central console. The main advantages of MirrorLinkTM are convenience and ease of use. 

Among its portfolio of driver interface solutions, Valeo is actively developing connected solutions in which smartphone services can be integrated and controlled using the dashboard interface. Users gain access to smartphone applications such as phone, navigation, music, internet radio, weather forecast and real-time traffic information through the in-vehicle display and sound system. Valeo aims to provide users with innovative interfaces, where smartphone services are dynamically and smoothly integrated with the vehicle’ own services. 
For this, Valeo uses the Qt user interface and application framework to create simple, powerful, cross-platform and fluid interfaces. Valeo announces that it has become a core member of the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC), an organization driving global innovation for phone-centric car connectivity solutions. By joining the CCC, Valeo will help to accelerate the pace at which these new solutions of using a smartphone in a car with a seamless, safe and effortless user experience can be made available to drivers. This innovation responds to the trend that people want to remain connected to their everyday environment in the best possible conditions, even when in a vehicle.

Renault adopts ADAS technologies from Valeo

Valeo is supplying Renault with two driving assistance systems. The BeamAtic lighting automation and LaneVue lane departure warning applications will equip the new mass-market Scenic, Grand Scenic, Mégane, Mégane coupé and Mégane estate facelift vehicles.

These applications are embedded in the Valeo multifunctional camera, located between the windshield and the rearview mirror.

The BeamAtic lighting automation system takes over the lighting commands to optimize the use of high beam. It switches back to low beam as soon as an oncoming or leading car is detected by the embedded camera. The system alleviates the stress of constantly switching the headlamps on and off, thus improving nighttime driving comfort and safety.

The LaneVue detection system alerts the driver if the vehicle drifts into the adjacent lane. The front camera detects the lane markings on the road, and compares them with the vehicle's trajectory. If the vehicle drifts into the adjacent lane without having activated the turn indicator, LaneVue™ immediately alerts the driver through sound and visual signals. This application may anticipate critical situations, e.g. in the event of driver drowsiness or lack of attention.

With these two applications, which combine innovative vision technologies and software developments, Valeo is making leading-edge driving assistance functions available to the widest possible markets.

CESA 2012 interview : Guillaume Devauchelle (Valeo) part 3

Last but not least, this is the last part of our interview with the R&D director from Valeo. Guillaume Devauchelle speaks of hybrids with an exclusive technology.

"Given the CO2 regulations in Europe and US for 2020 and beyond, it is now obvious for the automotive community that hybridization of powertrains is no longer an option. Hybrid means breeding together an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and an electrical motor. The electrical motor allows to recover kinetic energy during braking in the form of electricity which is stored in a battery and made available for the next acceleration where the electric motor will provide extra torque to the ICE which, in turn, will need less fuel.

The problem with the hybrids is that they use a powerful electric motor to allow significant range of electric drive. To do this a high voltage is needed, which turns the battery big and expensive. The battery is the main on-cost of an hybrid, and all of them today suffer from an overcost and overprice which limits their market penetration.

Valeo's affordable hybrid concept is streamlined by 2 main concepts: First, to turn an hybrid cheap, the main lever is to reduce the voltage to reduce the cost of the battery. This requires to limit the power of the electric machine. Second, to use the long experience in StopStart micro-hybrids systems (that Valeo invented) using cheap, alternator-based, electric motor. Extensive simulations have shown that limiting the power to 12 kW allows to save up to 10-15% of fuel on the European cycle while allowing a low 48V voltage system. Also, limiting the electric drive to take-off and some low speed cruise operations allows to have a reasonably small battery pack.

Valeo's affordable hybrid system consists then in a Belt-Driven Starter Generator with 12 kW peak power, inherited from our former StARS StopStart system, together with a small 300Wh 48V battery and a 48V-12V DC/DC converter. All together the cost of the system is halved compared to traditional hybrids. Vehicles have been built to demonstrate this "right sized" system with value-to-cost optimization and OEMs have all shown high interest for this solution in the past months. We have no doubt this will turn hybridization into a real mass-market, why we have tagged our system "Hybrid4All".

CESA 2012 interview : Guillaume Devauchelle (Valeo) part 2

For CESA 2012, R&D director from Valeo speaks about the connected car and applications from smartphones.

"The connected car offers a new range of opportunities to increase safety & comfort as well as to reduce CO2 consumption. We are working on the embedded devices that will enable the car to be connected to its environment using all available wireless standards (GSM, LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth, RF...). We see the crucial role that the connected mobility of the end-user will have in this new paradigm.

We already demonstrated some examples on how the car's systems could evolve : last September 2011 with Park4 Remote at the IAA in Franckfurt (autonomous Parking Manoeuvre with a remote control on a smartphone) and in the first quarter of 2012 with eSkin (connected display of the future that allows you to use safely your smartphone computing power while driving for off-board navigation for example) and many more to come...

Valeo firmly believes that connected Driving Assistance systems will also further contribute to C02 reduction by reducing the travel time (increased flow, quick & direct access to parking) and by optimizing the powertrain energy management thanks to the available extended horizon offered by connectivity".

To be continued with next Valeo and Hybrid4All.

CESA 2012 Interview : Guillaume Devauchelle (Valeo) part 1

For CESA 2012, Guillaume Devauchelle, R&D director at Valeo, speaks about the new Vedecom Institute in Paris area.

"In a context of unprecedented global change in both the demand for and use of personal transportation, the Vedecom Institute aims to increase the energy efficiency of personal transport and to decrease the presence of harmful emissions in priority urban and suburban areas, by inventing new mobilities at the same time as new vehicles.

No industrial company, no services operator, however powerful, will be able to achieve this on his own. It requires the automobile manufacturers and suppliers, the higher education and research establishments, the territorial collectivities, the mobility operators, the infrastructure engineering companies and managers, the city planners, the economists, the sociologists to work together in inventing and deploying these new mobility systems. VeDeCoM creates such a strategic alliance, for the first time in the world.


The entire car industry is reaching out to stakeholders in mobility systems, information services, and energy sectors. Vedecom will bring together a unique set of global specialists with multi-disciplinary skills, at the same time and in the same place, providing them with the environment and structure so needed by a fledgling industrial sector with a bright future.

It is a threefold programme, electrification of vehicules, connectivity and driving delegation, architecture and services which aims at addressing the whole system issues, in a multidisciplinary manner: design of new vehicles, design of new ways of drives, from assisted driving to automatic driving, design of new technology blocks, from mechatronics power traction, security controls and telecom assisted connectivity, offering best potential for massive new system introduction, a mandatory objective for having the required impact on energy consumption. Demonstrations, on annual basis, also show progress and test user acceptance. The Vedecom Institute is a brand new organization that is set to become a benchmark in the blossoming sustainable personal mobility sector, in order to get an energy reduction by at least a factor of 2 over the next 10 years.

Vedecom displays a technological reference to support the design and implementation of the “Grand Paris”. Being located in the Satory region at the north of the “Plateau de Saclay”, VeDeCoM is already asked to participate to the definition of new “eco-quartiers” around the new Grand Paris metro stations in this area. The new systems will serve as demonstrators and later on as benchmarks for the whole public transportation network, in Paris and worldwide, providing excellent grounds for companies to export their experience, and for researchers to attract students and high level personalities in France".

To be continued with next Valeo and the connected car...