A Revolution In The Industry
Ever since the beginning of the automotive industry, things have looked quite the same, at least from an engineering perspective.
The auto market was and still is dominated by traditional fuel vehicles. However, the breakthrough is happening as you read this article, and in the upcoming years, we can expect a major shift towards other fuel sources, primarily electricity.
Fuel Vehicles
New energy vehicles will present new opportunities, but also new challenges, and Vvkb as a company is ready to face them.
Gasoline Vehicle
The transition to new energy vehicles is a major one, and both the car and the component manufacturers have to adjust quickly. The same goes for companies like Vvkb that make accessory parts.
Vvkb Car Heater
A lot of research and development goes into our car heaters, mainly because most of our models rely on fuel combustion in order to produce heat.
Electric vehicles have a completely different concept, and at its core are the power systems, with the battery being the central part of it.
Electric Vehicles
It is what stores the energy, but also what powers the whole car, so it carries more importance to an electric vehicle than a gas tank to a regular vehicle.
Vvkb Electric Car Heater Development Process
Cold Start Issues
Engine Block Heater
We all know how hard it is to start a car during cold winter months. That’s because a traditional fuel engine will suffer from cold shrinkage of its metal parts, and the solidification of the lubricating oil inside.
Even worse, the cold start will increase the wear of the engine, which can quickly add up if you live in an area where winters are long.
Engine block heaters solve this, as they heat the coolant, which helps to heat the engine.
Vvkb Engine Block Heater Effect Diagram
Therefore, the engine is returned to the optimal temperature, which makes starting much easier, reducing the potential damage it can suffer.
Electric Cars Suffer From Similar Problems
But what about electric cars? Do we have to worry about low temperatures when driving a Tesla?
An essential part of any electric car is its power battery. These rely on chemical processes inside of them, which produce electricity.
Naturally, low temperatures will affect the chemical reactions inside the batteries, slowing it down and reducing its ability to deliver the needed electricity for the proper function of the car.
While the car will start, the battery will have much less power, which will significantly reduce the range of the vehicle.
Also, as you can see on the Tesla Motors structural diagram, a working power battery will release heat, which will be dissipated by the cooling system surrounding it.
So, what we need to do is to heat the cooling system, letting its temperature transmit to the battery itself.
Upon realizing this principle, the Vvkb technical team got to work.
Vvkb Electric Car Heater Systems
The Vvkb team has 24 years of experience developing engine heaters, but we also have five years of focusing on the development of battery heating systems for electric vehicles, as we started doing it back in 2015.
You will hardly find a heater company with a richer field-tested experience than Vvkb.
In 2016, we modified our Titan-P1 heater, adapting it to the battery heating systems of EVs.
Also, we provided batch-test samples to an electric car production company based in Hungary. A full year of batch trials gave us a lot of precious data, telling us more about the heater behavior in a new, electric environment.
However, the data told us that the Vvkb engine block heater Titan-P1 is not the best choice for electric vehicles. Therefore, after carefully comparing various data samples, we decided that the engine preheater Titan-B1, modified and adapted for electric cars, is probably the best choice.
So, we’ve sent it to the Hungarian company again to do more tests.
And finally, in 2019, we named our electric PTC coolant heater model Titan-E3.
Vvkb electric vehicle PTC coolant heater Titan-E3 can provide different types of voltages customers can choose, based on the vehicle. Options are 48 voltage, 72 voltage, 90 voltage, 110 voltage.
Vvkb EV PTC coolant heaters can also run from 24V DC to 600V DC. They can reach up to 6,000 watts of power.
The benefits of using the PTC ceramic chip as the heating element are:
- PTC heating body has good thermal efficiency. It can heat EV coolant efficient.
- PTC heating body has the feature of automatic constant temperature, no need for the temperature control system, when it reaches a certain temperature, PTC heating body will reduce the power.
- When using the PTC heating body to heat coolant, if the cooling system lacks coolant, the PTC heating body will not be damaged.
- PTC heating body has a long service life, used in normal environment, the life can be more than 10 years.
- Reliable operation, using the internal characteristics of the PTC to control the temperature.
- The change of the working voltage of the PTC heating body has a relatively small effect on the surface temperature. When the working voltage increases by 2 times (or decreases by 1/2), the surface temperature rises (or decreases) by about 8℃.
The Development Process Of Electric Car Cabin Heater.
Electric vs. fuel vehicles
Not only that the vehicle itself suffers in low temperatures, humans get affected too. Reaction time will decrease when the temperature gets low, which increases risks significantly.
So, no matter the type of car, it is essential to keep people warm during the cold winter months. This will not only increase comfort but will make the vehicle much safer to drive.
Hard To Keep Warm
The traditional fuel combustion engine generates a lot of heat during operation.
Usually, this heat is radiated outside through the engine cooling system.
But, during the winter, people can utilize the heat to keep the inside of the car warms.
Vvkb Heating System
Plus, you can always use the car’s air conditioning to heat the air in the cabin or heated by the heat pump, which is also powered by the generator that is powered by the engine.
However, all of this is unavailable in an electric vehicle, as it has no engine and, therefore, no fuel drive.
The problem gets even worse in the winter, as the power battery is already running lower than it should be, and the heating requires a large amount of electricity, which is needed elsewhere.
At this point, the power battery needs more development in order to provide more range to electric vehicles, and heating comes secondary. But, that doesn’t make it unimportant, on the contrary.
Benefits Of Diesel Heaters In Electric Cars
Vvkb simple portable car heaters and diesel heaters are an ideal solution for keeping the cabins of electric vehicles warm. With a low power consumption (around 25W), they won’t drain the electric vehicle’s power battery but will warm up the inside of the cabin.
Vvkb Portable Car Heater
Vvkb Apollo-V1 diesel heater has many advantages:
- Low consumption – the rated voltage is 12V, and the required power is 25W, which means it won’t affect the range of the vehicle.
- Quality raw materials – Vvkb uses only high-quality materials, and no toxic substances, making heaters entirely harmless for health.
- Quiet operation – the flexible exhaust pipe combined with a high-quality muffler makes the Vvkb heater one of the quietest you can find, which is very important since electric cars produce no noise.
- Easy to repair – anyone can install and repair Vvkb heaters just by following an instructional YouTube video.
- Great accessories option – even electric car manufacturers themselves can offer Vvkb electric car cabin heater as an extra they can install in the car right away.
- Customizable – we can provide unique, custom solutions for electric vehicle production companies. We have 24 years of designing and building heaters, so to us, no problem is unsolvable.
- Small size – The compact design makes the Vvkb heater very small in profile, and most of its parts are already installed before the sale. Therefore, you can install the portable car heater in the trunk of an electric car, and easily connect the hot air outlet to the interior of the cabin. But, you also need to prepare a small full tank.
Vvkb Diesel Heater
We are also developing Heat-Pump Cabin Heater. And great progress has been made. In the near future, we will be able to supply Heat-Pump Cabin Heater to the market.
About the state of the EV industry
Next, let’s take a general look at the global EV market and production.
Overview of the global electric vehicle market.
Global EV production, mainly in North America, Asia Pacific and Europe.
Electric vehicle production and sales in North America.
North America is the main production and consumption region for automobiles. In the United States, there are established car companies such as GM, Ford and others.
For electric production, Tesla is a leader in North America. Tesla produces electric cars, which already have more than 40% of the U.S. electric car market share.
And like GM and Ford and other old car companies, due to the history of the package is very heavy, the enterprise is very large, the transition is difficult. There is also no absolute determination to transform the production of electric vehicles.
However, classic models like the Ford Mustang still have a very large number of people who like them.
If you have the ability and technology, your company can transform these classic models, take these classic gasoline and diesel cars and convert them into electric cars with the same shape. And, the acceleration of electric cars is usually 4-5 seconds per 100 kilometers. It is much better than the acceleration performance of fuel cars.
In the process of converting a fuel car to an electric car, you will need power batteries and transmission motors and electric control equipment.
Amperex Technology Co. Limited
Among them, the choice of power battery, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited is probably the best company. Relying on China’s perfect ecological chain and manufacturing process, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited has developed into the largest and most technically capable power battery manufacturer in China.
If the customer’s budget is relatively low, you can choose lithium iron phosphate batteries, if the customer’s budget is higher, ternary batteries will be the best choice. The difference between them is the difference in range and safety performance.
Unit weight, lithium iron phosphate battery range is not as good as ternary batteries. And, with the development of technology, the safety of ternary batteries is also very reliable.
And the power battery has a cooling system, when driving normally, the cooling system can reduce the temperature of the battery and extend the battery life.
When charging the power battery, you need to have a heater to preheat the battery in advance and let the battery reach the right temperature for charging. This is when you need to choose Vvkb electric car battery heater.
Europe is another traditional region of fuel car production and consumption.
In Europe, VW, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, Peugeot and other car companies, are also actively transitioning. However, they are also all the same as GM Ford, because these car companies are very large, the transition to produce electric vehicles, it will take some time. This gives emerging car companies the opportunity. We will talk later, emerging car companies also have a way to do big business.
Electric Vehicle Scenario in Asia Pacific
Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region in the world in terms of demand for electric vehicles. Among them, China is the most dominant market.
From the statistics, in 2021, the sales of passenger cars in China reached about 21.482 million units, of which the sales of electric vehicles accounted for 13.4%, reaching 2.879 million units. And, between 2025 and 2026, China’s EV sales will account for about 50% or more of the overall passenger car sales.
Nio
In this huge market, which is dominated by Nio, XPeng Motors and Li Auto Inc, people call these three companies as Internet car makers. There are also Chinese private car manufacturers such as BYD Auto, Geely Automobile Holdings Limited and Chery Automobile Co., Ltd who are actively engaged in the production of electric vehicles.
In addition, there will definitely be some very large OEM platforms in China’s well-established industry chain, just like Foxconn OEMs for Apple phones. Among them, Foxconn and Luxshare are the most likely.
China’s Xiaomi, Huawei and other cell phone companies, are also actively engaged in the design of electric vehicles. These companies, will look for strong electric car manufacturers, by these strong electric car manufacturers OEM.
Possible future trends for electric vehicles.
It’s already a certainty that electric vehicles will replace fuel vehicles.
And China will be the fastest growing electric vehicle market in the world. At this stage, electric vehicles still need to consider the battery range. Amperex Technology Co. Limited, a Chinese battery manufacturer, is the best choice. Around 2025, battery technology will be perfected, and by then, there will likely be electric vehicles with a range of 1,000 kilometers.
The competition of electric car companies will shift from the battle of range to the battle of autonomous driving.
Now Tesla choose visual camera with millimeter wave radar. And many Chinese companies, choose LIDAR technology.
From the market development, LIDAR technology will be the trend of future development. Now the most important thing that plagues LIDAR is the price issue. When a large number of electric vehicle manufacturers choose LIDAR, the price of LIDAR will drop significantly.
Luminar
At that time, the battle between LIDAR and vision camera will also be won by LIDAR.
You can now focus on 1550nm LIDAR manufacturer Luminar Technologies.
According to calculations, investing in an electric vehicle production plant would require a complaint of at least $6 billion in capital. This is a huge investment. In these few years, there will be electric car OEMs in China.
Your company can design the drawings for the electric car and give them to the Chinese foundries, which will greatly reduce your investment in the production of electric cars.
Your company can also directly take the electric vehicles produced by these foundries and sell them to the Chinese market.
Our insights on EVs are still very simple, if you have more detailed insights, please feel free to send emails and discuss with us.
Let’s witness the development of the electric vehicle market and the opening of an era together.
Always Looking To Improve The Car Industry
As you can see, Vvkb is ahead of its peers. Yes, we always encounter new problems and challenges, but our A teams of engineers have 24 years-long histories of producing car heaters.
Vvkb EV Heater
We are at your service, providing you and your customers the necessary technical guidance. Therefore, we welcome electric vehicle production factories and dealers, but also maintenance personnel, and we invite you to contact us. Feel free to ask any question about electric vehicle heating, we will be happy to respond.
Electric vehicles are a huge opportunity, as they are still new, and there is a lot of room for success. If you see yourself in the industry, you should also consider electric car heaters, as installing them might give you an edge over your competition, becoming one of your best business investments.
We look forward to partnering up and developing the electric vehicle industry together, so don’t hesitate to contact us today!
