GOING THE DISTANCE

Controlling temperature is important for any car, but it is especially important for electric vehicles like the I‑PACE Concept and the I‑TYPE Formula E race car.

In racing, effective thermal management means drivers can compete faster and longer out on track. For road cars such as the I‑PACE Concept, drivers can gain up to 50 km more range between charges.

Within the I-PACE Concept, three temperatures all need to be controlled: the battery, the motors and the driver’s cabin. The vehicle’s sophisticated thermal management system heats and cools all of these individually – and harvests energy from one to the other. So if heat is generated in the electric motor, this is used to heat either the interior or the battery, or both. Transferring heat energy in this way means that the battery is used less for heating, resulting in more of the battery’s power being available for greater range.

“It’s a very sophisticated system where we can shuffle around the heat generated among these three different sources.”
Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart, Jaguar Land Rover Technical Design Director

In addition to harvesting energy produced by the vehicle itself, the I‑PACE Concept features a heat pump which draws in air from outside of the vehicle and uses it to heat the interior. Energy from the outside air is pumped to a higher temperature using very little energy itself, even when the outside temperature is relatively low. This heated air is then fed into the driver’s cabin, rather than using a conventional electric heater, which means less battery power is required for interior heating.

The impact of the heat pump is considerable. When the outside temperature is between 10°C and 15°C, using the heat pump – rather than power exclusively from the battery – can extend the range of the I‑PACE Concept by up to 50 km.