Open-Source Sports Electric Vehicle (OSSEV®)
The plan is to have advanced heating, cooling, ventilation and climate control. This will be electrically powered and the initial plan is to use a heat-pump to improve the efficiency.
A Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) heater is usually used in an EV to provide the cabin heating. This is a self-regulating heater with an electrical resistance that increases significantly with temperature and the heating element then maintains a constant temperature. Typically these are run off the main battery, to reduce the current required and to allow them to provide more heat output (typically around 3kW).
We would like to do something much smarter though, using proportional control. This will make the system much more efficient by only providing the heat required.
There will be physical control buttons and dials for all of the heating and cooling elements and these will all be backlit too. Because the HVAC can be app controlled, they will not be physically connected to the hardware.
Because the seats are air heated/cooled they are linked to the HVAC system via flexible pipes.
There will be fixed vents for the windscreen, side windows and rear window.
There will be four manual vents mounted into the dash, two for the driver and two for the passenger. There can only be shut off using the HVAC controls. This an example of a readily available 63mm off the shelf vent. I'm looking for something more stylish and in keeping with the rest of the interior design.
Classic Retrofit sell a kit of parts for an electric air conditioning system but it is expensive. This is not something we would consider in the MX-5e but, something like this will be an option in the OSSEV®.