Featured 2024 Ford F-150 Lightning to Includes Vapour-Injected Heat Pump on All Models

I can just imagine the Toyota designers scheduling a meeting to find out what a heat pump is...

 

Prius Prime has one
so does bz4x & the Subaru clone of it
.

 

The gen4 PP's was also a vapor injected type too.

I suspect we'll soon see heat pumps being standard in most BEVs. Previously, low supply meant higher cost for one, but the the supply should shift as more EVs come to market.

 

..... or .... manufacturers of supplies of heat pumps may (hopefully it won't) end up like Toyota's very limited supply of traction pack battery sources. Not available for high quantities based on long-term contracts said manufacturers.
.

 

about time, the 2023 lightning owners won't be happy

 

The Toyota Prime had it in 2017 and I believe it’s made by Denso. I wonder if Ford will get them from or in partnership with Denso.

 

They'll probably be more peeved about Supercharger access.

 

Doing fine without one for the past 5 years, no biggie.

 

speak for your self

i do miss the supercharger convenience - prior to selling the car ... & retiring. Driving through Santa Ana 5 days a week 4:30 a.m. & the location was right off interstate 5. Had my choice of over 2½ dozen stalls ... got off the freeway - picking up a quick 55 miles / & back on the freeway in under 15 minutes. And back in 2018 ? it was freeee! (incorporated into price i suppose)
good times
.

 

if you don't use most of your range, it isn't as big an issue. but if you're trying to eek out maximum range, you'll be stopping a lot more often with resistance heat

 

I may will be the only ignorant numbskull on PC that doesn't understand vapor injection Tech .... but just in case .... there's a nice read on what the heck vapor whatever is ... so I didn't have to keep scratching my head & wondering what I'm missing;

Vapor Injection Heat Pump System for EVs in Cold Regions

Kind of makes me wonder why Tesla wasn't the leading edge on this tech.
.

 

i thought tesla's heat pump was rated the best?

watch

watch

 

Maybe Sandy Monroe will compare the 2.
.

 

That's why I traded my Spark EV in for another Bolt. It was fine for the distance I traveled to work, but with a job change, another Bolt works out much better. Preheating in the Winter and heated seats and steering wheel really stretch out the battery range.

 

I remember it being a big deal with it being a first auto heat pump to have the vapor injection tech back then. All I know about Tesla's heat pump is that they didn't start using one until after that Prius came out.

Using a heat pump or not, or vapor injected or older type, comes down to costs and market. A Hyundai EV(Kona?) didn't have a heat pump in the US, but did in Canada.

 

The Tesla heat pump is a crazy efficient design. They can take heat from multiple sources through the octovalve. It's also extremely compact. It's also very quiet in its operation.
I have my Model Y set to have the cabin at the desired temperature when I leave in the morning and you hardly hear it (nice for the neighbours).

 

But all of their newer offerings are heat pump standard in all markets - aren't they? For example the EV ionic 6 is more efficient than a Tesla. They couldn't pull something off like that using resistance Heating.
.

 

Vapor injection was first widely used in some industrial applications. Mitsubishi employed it decades ago in their “hyper heat” heat pumps which can output full rated btus at 5f while conventional designs have rated btus around 47f.

A conventional 3 ton heat pump will output 1.5 tons at 17f and typically is supplemented with expensive to operate electric strips.

The key to a “low ambient” system is a variable speed compressor that can overspeed at low temperatures. The downside of overspeed is increased compressor heat. The compressor is kept cool in this mode by vapor (flash) injection.

In residential applications of “hyper heat” with vapor injection, power use goes up instead of down at low ambients while noise increases.

Mitsubishi also uses a hot gas (freeze protection) loop for defrost instead of supplementing the conditioned space with electric strip heat during defrost. Electronic expansion valves, heat exchangers for vapor injection and computer control complete the rather complex but effective low ambient strategy.

EVs are a good application for vapor injection.

Shown in Heat Mode without a Reversing Valve: