An air conditioner includes a battery temperature adjustment device which adjusts the temperature of a battery and has a refrigerant-heat medium heat exchanger to exchange heat between a refrigerant and a heat medium. A controller executes a first heating/battery cooling mode to let the refrigerant discharged from a compressor radiate heat in a radiator, decompress the refrigerant, and then let the refrigerant absorb heat in an outdoor heat exchanger and the refrigerant-heat medium heat exchanger, and a second heating/battery cooling mode to let the refrigerant discharged from the compressor radiate heat in the radiator and the outdoor heat exchanger, decompress the refrigerant, and then let the refrigerant absorb heat in the refrigerant-heat medium heat exchanger.

A heat pump system for a vehicle may include a cooling apparatus of circulating a coolant in a coolant line to cool at least one electrical component provided in the coolant line; a battery cooling apparatus of circulating the coolant to the battery module; a chiller for heat exchanging the coolant with a refrigerant to control a temperature of the coolant; a heating apparatus that heats an interior of the vehicle using the coolant; and first, second, and third connection line.

An electronic control unit is configured to i) turn off a charging relay when a charger is disconnected from an external power source while external charging is in progress which is started when the charger is connected to the external power source and the charging relay is turned on while a system is off and in which a battery is charged with electric power from the external power source by the charger, and ii) set the period from the disconnection of the charger from the external power source to the turn-off of the charging relay to be longer when preliminary air conditioning is in progress than when preliminary air conditioning is not in progress.

An apparatus for controlling a vehicle, which includes: a battery (3) capable of being charged from an external power source (EPS); a power generation unit (PGU) capable of charging the battery (3); an electric heater (12) configured to produce heat with electric power from an electric power source; a heater core (11) configured to heat air by using any one of waste heat from the power generation unit (PGU) and the electric heater (12); and a controller (19) configured to perform control for selectively using the waste heat from the power generation unit (PGU) and the electric heater (12) as a heat source of the heater core (11) when the vehicle is parked.

The present invention relates to a vehicle thermal management system which comprises multiple means of thermal management for electronic components (electronic units) for an autonomous vehicle and allows for efficient interworking between the multiple means. The vehicle thermal management system, which is a system for cooling electronic components required for the autonomous driving of a vehicle, is configured to cool electronic components by applying at least two systems among a first system for cooling the electronic components through the cooling structure thereof, a second system for cooling the electronic components by using a refrigerant cycle for air-conditioning a vehicle interior, and a third system for cooling the electronic components by using a separate refrigerant or a coolant cycle.

A vehicle-mounted temperature controller has a first heat circuit and a refrigeration circuit. The first heat circuit has a first radiator exchanging heat with outside air, a first heat exchanger, and a first pump, and configured so that a first heat medium is circulated therethrough. The refrigeration circuit has the first heat exchanger discharging heat from the refrigerant to a first heat medium to make a refrigerant condense, a second heat exchanger absorbing heat to the refrigerant to thereby make the refrigerant evaporate and to cool an object to be cooled, and a compressor, and is configured so that the refrigerant circulates through the first heat exchanger and the second heat exchanger and thereby a refrigeration cycle is realized. When the object to be cooled starts being cooled, the compressor is started up after the first pump is started up.

There is provided a vehicular air-conditioning device capable of reducing frost formation on an outdoor heat exchanger during vehicle running after disconnection from an external power source and extending a period during which a heating operation can be performed with high efficiency. A battery 55 is capable of being charged from an external power source. A controller 32 causes an outdoor heat exchanger 7 to absorb heat to thereby execute a heating operation to heat a vehicle interior. The controller 32 is capable of executing air preconditioning to preliminarily heat the vehicle interior before boarding. When the air preconditioning is executed in a state in which the battery 55 is connected to the external power source, the controller 32 heats the vehicle interior without using the outdoor heat exchanger 7, and changes a target temperature for heating control in the air preconditioning in the direction of increasing from a reference value of the target temperature.

The invention relates to a device (101, 102, 103) for energy distribution and/or energy conversion, the device being arranged in a hybrid- or electric vehicle (10) having at least one vehicle interior (20) and at least one battery (40) for driving at least one electric drive motor (50). To improve the total energy balance of the hybrid- or electric vehicle (10), according to the invention the device (101, 102, 103) comprises a housing (110) in which at least one electronic, electric, electromechanical, or electrochemical device (121, 122, 131, 132, 133, 161, 162, 171, 172) is arranged, the waste heat of which, generated during the distribution and/or conversion of energy, is fed into a flow of heat transfer medium (210) which passes through the housing (110), said flow being connected at its outlet to the vehicle interior (20) and/or to the battery (40).

The invention relates to a method for operating a fuel cell system (10) using a first operating mode, in which, when all of the fuel cell stacks (22, 26) are inactive, one fuel cell stack (22) is pre-heated using a coolant that is pre-heated by means of an electric heater (42) while bypassing all cooler circuits (58) of the active coolant circuits (14) via bypass lines (64) and the one pre-heated fuel cell stack (22) is activated in order to pre-heat an additional fuel cell stack (26) of the fuel cell system. Other operating modes for operating a fuel cell system are disclosed in additional embodiments.

A cooling system for cooling a hybrid vehicle apparatus includes a compressor that circulates a refrigerant, a first heat exchanger that carries out heat exchange between the refrigerant and outside air, an expansion valve that reduces the pressure of the refrigerant, a second heat exchanger that carries out heat exchange between the refrigerant and air-conditioning air, a cooling portion that cools the hybrid vehicle apparatus using the refrigerant that flows between the heat exchanger and the expansion valve, a gas-liquid separator that separates the refrigerant that flows between the heat exchanger and the cooling portion into a liquid-phase refrigerant and a gas-phase refrigerant, and a liquid accumulator that is provided between the gas-liquid separator and the cooling portion, and that retains the liquid-phase refrigerant separated by the gas-liquid separator.