Experimental Performance Investigation of an Air-Air Heat Exchanger and Improved Insulation for Electric Truck Cabins

Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are one promising measure to mitigate local greenhouse gas emissions. However, they still lack behind conventional vehicles in terms of maximum driving range. Using the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system, even further reduces the maximum driving range of the vehicle because the energy for the HVAC system must be taken from the battery. In this paper we experimentally investigate the impact of 1) an air-air heat exchanger and 2) an improved thermal insulation of a truck cabin on the heating performance of the HVAC system. Additionally, we consider the required fresh-air volume flow rate to keep the CO2 level within the truck cabin below the critical value of 1000 ppm. The results show that the two proposed simple measures could increase the energy efficiency of the truck’s HVAC system by 22%. When two persons are present in the truck cabin, a fresh-air volume flow of around 100 m3/h is required to keep the CO2 concentration around 1000 ppm. These results prove that even with simple measures, the energy efficiency of vehicles’ subsystems can be increased. In future, more research will be necessary to further improve energy efficiency also of other vehicular subsystems.