By Josh Perry, Editor
[email protected]

According to a report from Patently Apple, a U.S. patent application has been published by Apple for a new thermal management system for electric vehicles, which seems to confirm the long-running rumor of the company getting into the EV business with Project Titan.

Apple has applied for a patent on a thermal management system for EV.
(Wikimedia Commons)

The patent explains that Apple researchers are attempting to overcome the limitations of battery systems that use independent heating and cooling systems and components, which require more power, space, and complexity and can negatively impact overall system performance.

“The thermal management system includes a refrigerant subsystem or loop, a heating loop, a cooling loop, a battery loop, and a powertrain loop,” the article explained. “In one aspect, each of the heating, cooling, battery, and powertrain loops includes a heat exchanger in communication with another of the subsystem loops to provide selective heating or cooling between the communicating loops. In another aspect, only the cooling loop and powertrain loop share a common, dedicated heat exchanger to assist in cooling the powertrain loop coolant.”

There is also a liquid-cooled gas cooler (LCGC) that draws heat from the refrigerant system to supplement the thermal energy in the heating system. This could be used to heat the passenger cabin or to expel the heat through a low-temperature radiator.

The patent was originally filed in the third quarter of 2018. Read more at http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/
nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%
2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220190118610%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20190118610&RS=
DN/20190118610.

Learn more about the rumors surrounding Apple’s involvement in the electric car market in this article from 9to5Mac.com, https://9to5mac.com/guides/apple-car.