The heating and cooling systems are an important issue in the development of fully electric vehicles (FEVs). On the contrary to vehicles with thermal engines, in FEVs there is almost no waste heat available for the heating of the cabin or for the window de-icing and defogging. The cooling of the cabin also demands a large amount of energy. Due to the high power consumption, the heating and cooling of FEVs is a compromise between thermal comfort and vehicle range.
The aim of this work is to present the European project ICE (2010-2014) [1] which focuses on the development of an efficient air-conditioning and heating system based on a magneto-caloric heat pump and on a new system architecture to fulfill the thermal comfort requirements of an electric minibus. The system will be installed and demonstrated in a Daily Electric Mini-bus from IVECO-ALTRA. A complete series of tests will be realized on the vehicle, including range road tests to verify the reliability and efficiency of the system.
This paper presents the ICE project objectives and a description of the technologies and target performance. The control strategies of the heat pump, circulation pumps and fans are key points in the project, and hereby the thermal management operation strategies are being studied by means of an overall vehicle model which is completely dynamic. In this paper the first results and future perspectives of the ICE project are discussed.