Automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) claims that its ‘Ultium Energy Recovery’ – the company's proprietary Ultium-based architecture that now comes as standard feature – helps not only in charging and acceleration but also improves range.

Instead of calling the standard feature a ‘heat pump,’ GM coined a new term for it – the Ultium Energy Recovery, will is capable of capturing energy from the battery that may otherwise be wasted. Capturing the energy and reusing it allows the system to boost charging speed, acceleration and improver driving range. The potential to charge more quickly becomes possible via battery preconditioning. In short, the new system can store the excess heat to use when and wherever needed.

If the system uses the stored heat to keep the cabin warm, the EV will make use of less energy for its HVAC system, which would mean more energy for the EV itself. According to the manufacturer’s claims, the new system is capable of even capturing outside humidity as well as passengers’ body heat.

Doug Parks, GM’s Executive Vice President (EVP) for Global Product Development, Purchasing & Supply Chain, said in a statement that the new system would help ensure more efficiency, performance and overall customer benefit out of EVs.

Announcing the Ultium Energy Recovery, Parks said, “Having a ground-up EV architecture gives us the freedom to build in standard features like Ultium’s energy recovery capabilities. This helps us squeeze more efficiency, performance and overall customer benefit out of our EVs.”

The system reduces the overall need for the vehicle’s battery to provide power for heating and other functions. The system is capable of adding up to roughly 10 per cent more range to GM EVs. Improved charging and additional range will undoubtedly be more obvious and beneficial in cold temperatures since the vehicle will not have to work as hard as a vehicle lacking the new system.

It is quite interesting to note here that the origin of GM’s energy recovery feature can be traced all the way back to the EV1 – the automobile manufacturer’s first mass-produced and purpose-designed electric car of the modern era. The EV1 came equipped with a heat pump developed by GM engineers at the time. All current Ultium EVs have the heat pump; and from now, Ultium Energy Recovery system will come as standard in all upcoming Ultium architecture-based models.