Ventilation Q

I read in an article about how the Kia SOul EV has an optional heat pump to recover heat from battery/motor to warm the interior. Then, the article says 'there’s also a feature that deactivates all vents except those around the driver'.

Any details on this? How does it work?
Is it automatic, can it tell there is only one person in the vehicle?
Does it save much energy since the warm air blows past the driver and heats the rest of the vehicle anyways?

Hi Klaus,

There is a button on the dash to select 'driver only' for heating and AC. How much energy will it save? Some.

The HVAC system also automatically opens and closes the recirculate flaps to minimize the amount of air to be heated or cooled while keeping the humidity under control.

Every little bit helps.

This heat pump system may only be available on the high end model.

Bill

Also, the heat is recovered from the cooling system of the electric motor, which because of the high efficiencies of such motors, will only contribute a small amount to the heating load.

Like I said, every little bit helps.

From what I've read the battery pack uses fans and air for cooling.

Bill

Hi Bill,

Thanks for the reply - it'll be very interesting to see if the difference the 'driver only' ventilation makes is even measurable... 1 mile, maybe 2 more? Only time will tell...

Is it true that the Kia Soul EV can modulate different percentages of recirculated and fresh air (modulating flap position) or does it just intelligently have it on all fresh air or all recirculated air?

Thanks