A patented heat pump recovers energy from the battery to power heating and propulsion while also helping to conserve range.
DETROIT – GM announced a feature standard in its Ultium-based electric vehicles that captures and repurposes waste energy from the battery. Through the Ultium Platform’s energy recovery system, this waste energy can improve a vehicle’s range, decrease battery energy needed for heating, improve charging speed and even allow sportier driving.
EV batteries, power electronics, and other propulsion elements produce heat. The Ultium Platform can retrieve and store this waste heat from the Ultium propulsion system. It can also capture and use humidity from both inside and outside the vehicle, including body heat from passengers. The Ultium Platform can then deploy energy accumulated through the recovery process to heat the cabin faster in cold weather than comparable systems seen in vehicles with an internal combustion engine.
Ultium’s energy recovery capabilities reduce the need to power heating and other functions from energy stored in the battery, potentially allowing more power and range than vehicles with similarly sized batteries without energy recovery capabilities. Ultium vehicles can also potentially charge more efficiently by preconditioning or warming up the batteries before charging with its active heating capabilities.
Ultium’s energy recovery enables GMC HUMMER EV’s available Watts to Freedom feature. Energy recovery precools the propulsion system to help the all-electric super-truck accelerate from 0-60 mph in approximately 3 seconds.
Covered by 11 patents and four publications, the development of Ultium energy recovery traces its inception back to GM’s first EV, in the late 1990s, when GM engineers first developed an EV heat pump. Ultium energy recovery is available on all current Ultium vehicles and is planned for future Ultium vehicles.
About – General Motors is a global company focused on advancing an all-electric future that is inclusive and accessible to all. At the heart of this strategy is the Ultium battery platform, which powers everything from mass-market to high-performance vehicles. General Motors, its subsidiaries and its joint venture entities sell vehicles under the Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Baojun and Wuling brands.
