They create a new heated seatbelt included to reduce the electrical consumption of battery-powered cars. How does it work and how much autonomy is gained?
The electric car has become the main alternative to vehicles that run on fossil fuels. The arrival of measures in the field of pollution has made the transformation of the car park a reality. Now, is it an alternative with sufficient conviction on the part of the public? The truth is that we are facing a problem. The Lack of autonomy continues to be the main obstacle of the technology proposed by sustainable mobility.
This means that the development of the electricity market is not achieving significant increases in recent months. The company linked to the automotive market, ZF, believes that it is possible to incorporate solutions to increase the mileage to be carried out for each complete charging cycle. In winter, something as simple as turning on the heating can have a very strong impact on autonomy, reducing it up to 20 or 30%. Buying a car paying more so you have to wear your coat on trips? Many do not believe in this idea.
It seems that the use of a new seat belt system, oddly enough, could have a lot to do with the total consumption of the electric car. Let’s see, therefore, What are the keys behind this technology? and, of course, to what extent we can find ourselves before a product that can mark the next generation of cars based on batteries and electric motors. Who was going to say that this piece of security could gain up to 15% autonomy?
Installing heated seat belts to gain autonomy is now a reality
The installation of this technology has become the umpteenth attempt of the electric car to to match the figures of autonomy of cars based on internal combustion. The heating system is a fundamental component in vehicles. Contrary to what happens in those that work with petroleum derivatives, electric ones usually use heat pumps to improve performance energetically. Companies like Tesla have managed to introduce interesting innovations in this section for a long time to gain the odd dozen extra kilometers.
The operation of the ZF belt is very simple. It is enough with the introduction of a switchboard connected to the one of the vehicle and a series of wires included in the seams of this piece. Its use is immediate and allows, without a doubt, to obtain a heating at the moment to a temperature of 36 to 40 degrees Celsius. It is true that the rest of the vehicle is kept at a much lower temperature, but users will have a higher thermal sensation. The use of heating, therefore, could take a backseat.
In this way, the use of the electric car could have a greater role by gaining autonomy of up to 15% with each complete charge cycle. To understand it in another way, if a car had a range of 500 kilometers, the route could be increased up to 75 additional kilometers in the winter months. It is, without a doubt, a quite remarkable improvement in performance.
It would certainly not be surprising if, over the next few months, we could see the occasional advertisement in which this differential quality is appreciated in some of the ranges of cars that exist on the market. Meanwhile, the advantages of the electric car seem to be enough to continue driving sales of vehicles in this class.