Every Little Bit Adds Up – 2011 S60 Regenerative Charging
I was going though technical specs and found a bit of technology that’s rather slick. Regenerative Charging (RC) is used in our S60s electrical system to reduce carbon output and increase fuel economy.
RC is an intelligent control of the alternator charging function. By changing the alternator charge level parameters, when the driver uses the brake pedal, the alternator is signaled to start generating electricity. This takes unused engine horsepower and powers the alternator to charge the vehicle battery.
I asked Anders Wogel in our Rockleigh office to explain:
“A simple control strategy would be to ‘switch on’ the alternator only when the driver is braking and ‘switch off’ the alternator in all other situations. RC braking does require a BMS (Battery Monitoring System) to keep track of the battery condition. RC is used on vehicles with Start/Stop technology (part of the DRIVe concept in Europe).
Best regards Anders Wogel, QAT satellite EESE, EMS”
Anders further explained that the control strategy is if the battery needs more power during normal driving, the system reverts to conventional charging parameters. If the battery system is charged, we use a sliding curve algorithm that determines what to do between totally off and maximum charge output, to optimize Regenerative Charging opportunities to charge the battery.
RC is one of those clever little technological tweaks that helps reduce our carbon output – bit by bit.
Dan
