Page 53 - European Energy Innovation - summer 2019 publication

Summer 2019 European Energy Innovation 53

COMMUNICATION

QUIET project

Qualifying and implementing a user-centric designed and efficient electric vehicle

Current activities in the field of vehicle electrification thermal/energy optimised
offer a great potential for contributing to climate change management cabin heating
mitigation by reducing anthropogenic CO2 emissions.
Beyond the environmental strain, there is also an
economic one. In 2017 the automotive sector accounted
for 4% of EU’s GDP employing approximately 12 million
people in the manufacturing, sales, maintenance, and
transport domain.

It is therefore crucial for the European automotive lightweight thermal
industry to exploit not only the environmental benefits, components chassis
but also the business opportunities which come from the insulation
transition from conventional fuel powered to electrified
vehicles. In order to capture these opportunities, electric novel AC with
vehicles must deliver better performance at a lower price, phase change
overcoming the constraints that are currently limiting their material storage
mass-market uptake. One major constraint is the limited
driving range compared to conventional vehicles due to
the limited battery capacity and high cost of the electric
energy storage systems.

The QUIET project aims at developing an improved and The objective of the QUIET project is to reduce the energy
energy efficient electric vehicle with increased driving needed for cooling and heating the cabin of an electric
range under real-world driving conditions. This is achieved vehicle under different driving conditions, by at least 30%
by exploiting the synergies of a technology portfolio in the compared to the Honda baseline vehicle. Additionally, a
areas of user-centric design with enhanced passenger weight reduction of about 20% of vehicle components (e.g.
comfort and safety, lightweight materials with enhanced doors, windshields, seats, heating and air conditioning) is
thermal insulation properties, and an optimised vehicle addressed. These efforts will finally lead to a minimum of
energy management. 25% driving range increase under both hot (+40°C) and
cold (-10°C) weather conditions. l
The developed technologies will be integrated and
qualified in a Honda B-segment electric vehicle validator. The QUIET project
Among these, a novel refrigerant for cooling, combined consortium involves
with an energy-saving heat pump operation for heating, a collaboration of 13
advanced thermal storages based on phase change multi-disciplinary and
materials, powerfilms for infrared radiative heating, and complementary partners
materials for enhanced thermal insulation of the cabin from industry and research originating from 6
will be investigated. Further focus is put on lightweight different countries. All public deliverables and
glasses and composites for windows and the chassis, further information about QUIET are available at
as well as light metal-aluminium or magnesium seat https://www.quiet-project.eu/.
components. Optimised energy management strategies,
such as pre-conditioning and zonal cooling/heating in Acknowledgement: The QUIET
the passenger cabin as well as user-centric designed project has received funding from
cooling/heating modules will further enhance the thermal the European Union’s Horizon 2020
performance of the vehicle. These strategies will be research and innovation programme
seamlessly implemented in an intelligent vehicle control under grant agreement No. 769826.
unit enhanced by a novel Human Machine Interface,
which, beyond being intuitive and user friendly, will also
consider diverse users’ needs, accounting for gender and
ageing society aspects.

www.europeanenergyinnovation.eu