The Horizon 2020 QUIET project, where eCon Engineering could demonstrate its engineering expertise in a 12-member international consortium including such highly prestigious partners as HONDA, AVL and Fraunhofer Institute, has been completed successfully. The QUIET consortium aimed to extend the drive range of electric cars under real-life environmental conditions such as winter cold or summer heat.

Under such conditions, a significant portion, up to 20% of the overall battery capacity can be used for passenger cabin heating or cooling, and as such is holding significant potentials for improvement. One of the major focus points of the project was the development of the HVAC system of the vehicle, e.g., the implementation of a high-efficiency heat pump, phase change materials and a user-friendly interface (GUI), while the other focus point was the reduction of weight and thermal insulation associated with the passenger cabin of the vehicle. eCon has contributed to the latter by achieving a 20-30% weight reduction compared to the weight of the targeted windows, side doors and seats of the reference vehicle by using polymers, polymer composites and hybrid metal-polymer foams.

In addition, a significant reduction in thermal conductivity and thermal inertia have also been achieved, which further help to extend the effective range of the vehicle. Not only have the new components been designed and calculated, but they have also been manufactured and installed in a test vehicle, as a result, the validation of the improvements has also been done.