See, the problem with operating an EV in winter is twofold. First, there’s the fact that lithium-ion batteries just aren’t happy in below-freezing temperatures. Recurrent Auto aggregated data from 7,000 EVs and found winter range to fall considerably below range at 70 degree temperatures. The popular Ford Mustang Mach-E and Volkswagen ID.4 both saw a 30 percent drop in range, a considerable impact on usability. Then there’s the matter of keeping the cabin of an EV warm. It’s no secret that EVs don’t generate the same sort of powertrain heat as combustion-powered cars, as there should be a distinct lack of combustion going on. While manufacturers have attempted to keep occupants cozy with heat pumps and resistive heaters, the simple truth is that resistive heating is incredibly power-hungry and heat pumps can be expensive to engineer and produce. Not great when batteries absolutely hate cold weather and electric cars are generally fairly expensive. A relatively cheap, less power-intensive solution is to warm each occupant directly, through creature comforts like heated seats and a heated steering wheel. A reasonably ass-blazing heated seat draws between three and four amps, or 40 to 50 watts of power, a much smaller current draw than a resistive heater. Better yet, if only one or two occupants are in a car, then only one or two heated seats are on, meaning current draw for heating is directly related to vehicle occupancy. However, there is one small problem with heated seats – they only heat your back and thighs.
Enter, the Heat Belt. Basically, ZF has put tiny little heating elements inside seatbelt webbing that can immediately start warming up as soon as you turn them on. Best of all, these elements are so thin that the Heat Belt doesn’t require special retractors, meaning that retrofitting should be relatively easy. A nice warm band across your body and lap sounds pretty great for winter driving, and the current draw is so low that ZF claims the Heat Belt may improve cold weather range by up to 15 percent versus using traditional climate control. So how hot is the Heat Belt supposed to get, and what are the drawbacks? Well, ZF claims temperatures between 36 and 40 degrees Celsius (96.8 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit), which sounds properly toasty. As for drawbacks, the big one is that the Heat Belt doesn’t heat your entire front, but there’s also the possibility that winter coats may diminish its immediate feeling of warmth. Still, minor details. While I still want to see what the Heat Belt is like in the real world, the promise of a cold-weather range boost and general coziness hits my frozen Canadian psyche just right. Given the alleged ease of implementation, I wouldn’t be surprised to see heated seat belts on production-spec EVs fairly soon. (Photo credits: Volvo, ZF)
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As long as there’s a car seat between my kids and the factory seat, heating the whole cabin is the only option. As for the practicality of heated belts I’m not sure it would do all that much assuming one also has heated seats and it’s just one more thing to break. Heated rear seats and these for rear seat passengers would be great. But oof, my aching wallet…. Use a closed loop coolant system (not air) that only raises temp significantly while charging and while driving just maintains that temp. Heat capacity of water is a helluva lot higher than air, so it’ll take a lot longer to lose that heat. You lose more as you heat a dead-cold vehicle, so make sure the HVAC system will raise the temp while charging so it doesn’t fight that. Good enough insulation on the car body, only significant losses would be from the glass and opening/closing the doors. Been a while since my various thermo classes, and my professor kinda sucked at actually teaching so its far from my strong suit, but I feel there is potential there. You know what’s good at heating a passenger compartment? Liquid fuel. Heaters are really good at turning combustible liquid fuel into heat. Up to 100% efficient at it depending how you go about it. IT’S OK to burn some fuel. An alcohol or (horrors) diesel heater will probably only consume a couple liters of fuel getting a typical driver through a winter with a warm passenger compartment. Your vehicle will STILL be “green.” There is absolutely no requirement that you be completely carbon free (and use the alcohol if you’re that concerned). 99.9% less emissions is more than good enough! As a bonus, it’ll improve your EV’s range more than heated seatbelts and turning the heat down. Also it will defrost your windshield. Also it will keep your feet warm. Anyway, installing diesel hydronic heaters into the glycol loop of EVs isn’t that uncommon. People driving electric delivery vans do it. Some F-150 Lightning owners have done. Soon I’m going to do it to MY F-150 Lighting. I bet it ends up costing less than these dumb seatbelts. Also, these are going to cook themselves in the section that is still coiled up in the mechanism. Heated seats and steering wheels are great but they don’t quite get the job done when the air in the car is fuck-off cold. Instead of using a large resistive heater and blower to warm up the whole cabin, why not use smaller ones to gently blow warm air onto your neck? How could you say this is a good idea and over look the fact that they’re a high-use flexible item, that a lot have an explosive charge fitted on/near them, that in the event of an accident they’re designed to be cut and removed from trapped occupants and that this could actually, actively discourage some people from choosing to wear them through equally flawed logic choices. Seatbelt technology should be focused entirely on occupant safety, except for where discomfort could lead to them not being used. This is stupid. End of discussion. I do it precisely for the reason you stated: it’s counterproductive to insulate my corpus from the heat sources. This means wearing no coat and no gloves inside the car. I will survive for the very short time needed to let the seat and steering wheel heat up. A few minutes of gentle driving later, the engine coolant has warmed up a bit and the regular heater can take over. Easy. Yes,yes it sounds ridiculous using gas for something in an EV, but the numbers dont lie.It would be a great combo Jaguar and Land Rover have been doing this for years. The wires are very fine and they’re not visible unless the light catches them a certain way, and even then they are barely noticeable. Is this for svelt Californians in Summer clothes for when it dips below 60 F? Why not a nice electric blankie? ICE vehicle on a cold day using “waste” energy to heat car to toasty warm temps with little detriment to mpg or range–“How do you like me now?” I’m not actually sure how much difference this will make since when it’s cold enough to need heated seats I’m generally wearing a jacket and won’t feel the seat belt much, but the same applies to heated seat backs so it’s worth a shot.
