Efficient heating of electric vehicles
Published in autoregion international - Edition 1/2020
⏱ approx. 5 Minutes
Thanks to new and robust heating technology, DBK’s faster and lighter compartment heaters solve the thermal challenges of air conditioning and battery performance in e-mobility.
When it comes to the heating of electric vehicles, modern high-voltage (HV) heaters are most commonly used today. Without a combustion engine, there is no more waste heat for the heating of windscreen, passenger department, and the HV battery.
DBK has been supplying HV heaters for many years with both, long-established tubular heating technology and PTC heating technology. Even though these PTC heaters have been state-of-the-art for decades, their control behavior, weight, and response time leave room for optimization.
DBK is currently developing a new generation of HV air heaters. Replacing the PTC Finned Resistor Heater with a newly developed heating technology brings many advantages: the new air heater is now 50% lighter at the same power output, and its control behavior and thermal response time improved by the factor of five. Further, the simple design of the new PTC heater allows for flexible scaling to the required installation situation or vehicle-specific power requirements. The integrated electronics guarantee high-performance and reliable operation over the vehicle’s entire temperature and voltage range thanks to comprehensive measurement, diagnostics, and control algorithms.
DBK is an expanding, international corporate group with headquarters in the Southern Palatinate region of Germany. For over seven decades, DBK has been committed to the effective and sustainable deployment of energy by developing highly engineered electrical components and custom-designed thermal management solutions for multiple industries.
The DBK corporate group comprises subsidiaries in France, the UK, Hong Kong, the US, Austria, the Czech Republic, Sweden, China, and Germany, as well as numerous agencies spread over Europe.