What is the heat pump in an electric car for?

Homologating the maximum range is one of the premises for electric car manufacturers. One way of doing this is by installing higher-capacity batteries. But although things are changing at an accelerated pace, the cost of electric car batteries is still high, in addition to their greater weight. Other areas of focus for “scraping” extra kilometres of range include reducing aerodynamic drag.

But there is one element that is increasingly used in electric cars as a technical solution to improve range: the heat pump. Or rather, instead of talking about improving range, we should say that it prevents range from dropping alarmingly when we use the heating a lot in very cold climates. By the way, this technology is not exclusive to electric cars: in 2015, when it did not yet have any fully electric model in its range, Audi was the first manufacturer to incorporate it into a plug-in hybrid, the Q7 e-tron.

In some cases, especially in premium models or in the best-equipped versions of the more popular electric cars, the heat pump comes as standard equipment. In others it may be an optional extra at an additional cost. And there are electric cars that simply do not offer this possibility, or only offer it in certain markets, generally in countries with very cold climates.

How does an electric car’s heat pump work?

The heat pump makes it possible to use the residual heat from the vehicle’s electrical components to heat the cabin. The components that generate heat are mainly the electric motors of the propulsion system, but also the on-board chargers, the inverters and the batteries themselves.

The heat pump uses a refrigerant that circulates through a circuit at high pressure. The residual heat from the electrical components is used to warm this refrigerant and make it change from liquid to gas. This gas is discharged into a condenser to return to liquid state.

The process generates additional thermal energy that the heat pump recovers to heat the cabin up to three times more efficiently than a conventional climate control system would, which makes it possible to reduce electricity consumption and therefore increase range.

How much does an electric car’s heat pump cost?

On models where it is offered as an option, such as the new Audi Q4 e-tron, the heat pump costs 1,120 euros.

Since the positive effect of the heat pump on an electric car’s range is especially noticeable at temperatures below 0 degrees Celsius, you should not worry if the electric car you are going to buy does not come with this technology as standard, nor consider it as one of the first options to pay for as an extra… unless you will regularly be driving in very low outside temperatures.