VDO Automotive's Battery Sensor Protects from Nasty Wintertime Surprises

- Continental's energy management helps to reduce fuel consumption
- Electronics from Continental capture continuous car battery data with start of production in 2008

Regensburg, January 18, 2008 -- A weak battery can easily give drivers a nasty surprise in the morning, particularly when temperatures drop: The car won’t start, because the starter doesn’t receive the needed power. The Intelligent Battery Sensor from Continental provides early warning when a battery is running down due to age, thereby preventing breakdowns. To accomplish this, it constantly determines the exact charge status of the vehicle battery. The sensor will go into series production in 2008. The sensor will then also help to reduce fuel consumption.

According to statistics from the German automobile association ADAC, almost one in every three car breakdowns is due to empty batteries. It also has to do with the fact that today’s vehicle batteries must provide much more than in the past. After all, vehicle electronics have taken on many more responsibilities. In today’s vehicles, they ensure greater onboard safety, simplify traffic orientation, and enhance driving comfort through features such as heated seats. The battery is thus also subject to correspondingly higher requirements. This is where the Intelligent Battery Sensor (IBS) from Continental comes into play: It measures the battery’s current, voltage, and temperature at rapid intervals, thereby monitoring the battery’s charge status. This data basis is combined with the car’s energy management system to avoid complete discharge of the battery and warn the driver ahead of time when the battery is running down due to age.

The use of the battery sensor also reduces fuel consumption by an extra measure. Because the vehicle’s battery is traditionally supplied with an electrical charge at all times when the engine is running, a corresponding amount of engine power must be diverted to do so. With the help of a modern energy management system based on the intelligent battery sensor, this is changing. If the battery has sufficient charge and the vehicle’s engine is under heavy load, the vehicle electronics disrupt the transmission of energy from the generator to the battery. The result is reduced fuel consumption. The vehicle’s engine does not have to expend as much energy to operate the generator. This reduces carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, thereby ensuring that the car has greater range, without having any effect on driving performance.

In combination with a so-called “DC/DC” converter, the IBS also enables fuel-saving stop/start automatic operation, in which the engine is automatically turned off when the car stops. This is an ideal way to save fuel when waiting at a traffic signal, for example. Before the engine is turned off, the battery is analyzed for starting capacity using the IBS. The DC/DC converter provides then a buffer for the drop in voltage when the engine is started, thereby stabilizing the onboard electrical system. The devices that use electrical energy are kept in operation while the engine is starting. The radio keeps playing and the navigation system also does not need to be restarted.

Thanks to the energy management system from Continental and the diagnostic function of the IBS, the driver no longer needs to worry about whether the starter still has enough electricity available to crank the engine, even after the vehicle has been parked for a long time. The sensor constantly measures battery voltage and temperature, the charge and discharge currents, and the battery’s internal resistance. These data are used to draw conclusions regarding the battery’s load, charge status, and age. If the battery data show that it is necessary to change batteries, the change can be carried out with no problem: The new battery is automatically recognized and undergoes another round of precision diagnostics. The data gathered by the sensor can also be used for fault diagnosis if the vehicle is being repaired or even applied as early as during vehicle production. This way, possible defects can be uncovered quickly.

The IBS is installed directly on the battery. It fits on the negative pole, right in the recess around the pole itself, the “pole recess.” This means that the IBS can be combined with any lead acid battery, and in the future the IBS will be further developed in cooperation with the cable and pole clamp specialist Auto-Kabel.

The intelligent battery sensor (IBS) is one of the components of Continental's “Battery and Energy Management” (BEM) approach. BEM ensures that energy management will be optimized in future vehicles. To accomplish this, the various devices that consume electricity in the vehicle will trade back and forth like on an electricity exchange. In this scenario, electronics that are required purely for comfort reasons, such as seat heating, will reduce their consumption for a short time to free up energy for safety electronics, thereby ensuring that the other vehicle systems continue to function properly.

As small as the new battery sensor is, it is one more piece in the puzzle of the car of the future: By-wire technologies, better connectivity and hybrid drives will then ensure fewer accidents, emissions-reduced driving, and dependable, comfortable cars.

With annual sales of more than €25 billion (based on 2006 figures), the Continental Corporation is one of the top five automotive suppliers worldwide. As a supplier of brake systems, systems and components for the powertrain and chassis, instrumentation, infotainment solutions, vehicle electronics, tires and technical elastomers, the corporation contributes towards enhanced driving safety and protection of the global climate. Continental is also a competent partner in networked automobile communication. The corporation currently employs approximately 150,000 at nearly 200 locations in 36 countries.

Supplying both, OEMs and the Aftermarket worldwide, the Interior Division of Continental AG develops and produces electronic systems which allow the information in a vehicle to be controlled and communicated according to the requirements of the driver and the driving situation. The Division achieves annual sales of more then €6 billion with a workforce of more than 33,000 employees. The range of products includes instruments clusters and multifunctional displays, control units, electronic car entry systems, tire information systems, climate control systems, radios, multimedia and navigation systems, telematic solutions as well as cockpit modules and systems. The Interior Division develops vehicle electronics enabling car-to-car and car-to-infrastructure communication, Internet access and the seamless integration of mobile devices (car-to-device). The focus on systems integration offers customers less complexity and ensures efficient and cost-effective solutions for the management of information in passenger cars as well as commercial and special vehicles.

Source: VDO Automotive AG

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