Motivair Cool News

With consecutive year-after-year sale increases of electric vehicles, manufacturers are looking at ways to scale their operations to meet growing demand.

But before these vehicles can hit the road, they need to undergo rigorous testing. From engine testing to environmental climate chamber testing to battery liquid cooling, manufacturers are now depending on Industrial grade air-cooled & water-cooled chillers.

They need to deliver process fluid temperatures as low as -25*F year-round with zero downtime, optimal manufacturing and testing conditions, and zero downtime for reliable results.

ABOUT THE INDUSTRY
Electric vehicle sales, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, hit a record year in 2020 with 761,000 vehicles sold. That's the fifth consecutive year of growth.

Additionally, U.S electric vehicle sales reached a record high monthly volume in March 2021. According to data from Argonne National Laboratory, Americans purchased

• 75,959 Hybrid-Electric Vehicles (HEVs)
• 33,370 Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs)
• 12,687 Plug-In Hybrid-Electric Vehicles (PHEVs)

Globally, according to the IEA, the electric car market hit the 10 million mark in 2020, a 43% increase over 2019.

"Notably, electric cars are gradually becoming more competitive in some countries on a total cost of ownership basis. Several governments provided or extended fiscal incentives that buffered electric car purchases from the downturn in car markets," the IEA said in a report.

According to a recent report from the New York Times automakers are now shifting to electric vehicles, which could make up one-quarter of new sales by 2035, analysts project.

CHILLERS DESIGNED FOR PROCESS SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS
Motivair recently worked on applications for electric vehicle production.

We aided our client with engine testing, helping cool dynamometers (dynos). This required the chillers to provide a multitude of different chilled water setpoints for the dynos to meet optimum coolant and oil conditions., coolant, and oil applications.

Dynos benchmark and measure an engine’s output with respect to force, torque and power generated by a vehicle.

One of the requirements for this application was to be able to supply elevated water temperatures to simulate extreme operating conditions, as well as test the life cycle of the motors.

The results from the dyno make sure the motor passes quality control as well as meeting regulatory requirements. To ensure maximum uptime and throughput, a robust industrial grade chiller design was required to support the 24/7 process demand.

Motivair provided a custom chiller design to meet the specific project design criteria including a compact footprint for this application, tailoring it to fit the required proper operating envelope.

Additional custom features included:

• Optimized condenser coil for elevated water temperatures and high ambient operation
• Integrated pump station
• Integrated stainless steel buffer tank
• Integrated expansion tank

To learn more about Motivair’s Process Chillers, click here.