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2012 BMW ActiveHybrid 3 nav system uses altitude to optimize hybrid efficiency

Discussion in 'Prius, Hybrid, EV and Alt-Fuel News' started by ydooby, Jan 9, 2012.

  1. ydooby

    ydooby Junior Member

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    A very clever way to improve the car's real-world fuel economy I say.:thumb:

    2012 BMW ActiveHybrid 3 nav system uses altitude to optimize hybrid efficiency

    2012 BMW ActiveHybrid 3 nav system uses altitude to optimize hybrid efficiency

    Somewhat lost in the fanfare of BMW introducing a hybrid version of its best-selling 3 Series at the Detroit Auto Show was a brief mention of its new navigation technology. The 2012 ActiveHybrid 3 will be the first hybrid to use its nav system to help predict the best time to use and recharge its battery. This will go well beyond currently available navigation technology that plots economical travel routes based on traffic and speed limits, also incorporating altitude, final destination and other real-time data to wring the most out of those electrons.

    For example, suppose there's a big hill on your route. Since the 3 Series hybrid "knows" you will be descending, and thus afforded a good opportunity for recharging, it can drain more of the battery on the way up. BMW says it is still working on the system, but it will be included as a standard feature on the ActiveHybrid 3, and will eventually spread to the ActiveHybrid 5 and other hybrid models. While we don't have much in the way of details, the opportunity here seems pretty vast, effectively allowing the car to hypermile for you.
    While that's impressive enough, BMW also tells us that it's toying with the idea of allowing the car to perform similarly even when the navigation system is not in use. This would work by identifying driving patterns from day-to-day. For instance, if you are traveling the same route to work every morning, once you head out on your commute the car would recognize this and make the same sorts of predictions as if you had punched the destination into the navigation system.

    Of course, operating in this manner would require the car to track your driving, which opens a whole can of worms regarding privacy. BMW says the 3 Series does not currently have a "black box" to record such data, although its seems that such information could certainly be sent off to reside on a cloud-based server. Regardless, BMW says the concept is still under development.

    The ActiveHybrid 3 doesn't go on sale until fall, so BMW has some time left to finish its work. The company didn't say exactly how much benefit you might expect from such a system, and we'd imagine it would vary greatly depending on driving conditions. It did tell us the hybrid 3 Series is expected to return 37 miles per gallon on the highway, and that's before any improvement from the navigation-hybrid integration, as this sort of benefit wouldn't be shown in the fuel economy displayed on the window sticker.
     
    #1 ydooby, Jan 9, 2012
  2. wwest40

    wwest40 Member

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    Wow...

    Might that mean that should I program my GPS to route me to Portland (from Seattle) it would then know to use the ICE for acceleration rather than the hybrid battery that likely cannot be recharged EXCEPT via the use of the ICE..?

    SUPER!
     
    #2 wwest40, Jan 9, 2012
  3. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    I duno - but personally? I just got a SWEEEET invite. Whadaya think . . . should I go? Maybe I could be the ambassador for PC?
    :eyebrows:
    Heck - being the consumate hungry guy, the free food would have done it for me. :p

    BTW - These are the good folks that'll be doling out the Calif. rebate checks, should you get a PiP in just a short while . . . . so be sure and check out there web site for further details!

    .
     
    #3 hill, Jan 9, 2012
  4. austingreen

    austingreen Senior Member

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    You should go, but its not on the activehyrid3, which is a flywheel electric hybrid of a bmw335i. The tech is really good, and I hope they use it on the bmw328i which should provide better fuel economy. The nav use to decide on battery use is a great idea, but the hybrids battery may be a little small.


    The Active E is a pure electric version of the smaller 1 series car. Think of it as a sportier, smaller, faster, more expensive leaf. IIRC it will have a 32kwh liquid cooled and heated battery pack. BMW decided they needed battery conditioning after the miniE trial.
     
    #4 austingreen, Jan 9, 2012
  5. spwolf

    spwolf Senior Member

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    yeah, i wonder how much it matters in 1.1kwh battery.... still cool thing to have for plugins... unless you change the route... then it will yell at you :)
     
    #5 spwolf, Jan 10, 2012
  6. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    This would be awesome as I'm not familiar with the routes across the Rockies so it would be nice if the car could manage battery SOC such that I could recharge on the way down.
     
    #6 Tideland Prius, Jan 15, 2012
  7. drinnovation

    drinnovation EREV for EVER!

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    Finally.. this has been discussed in research for years and is straightforward to do with a Nav system..

    I wonder how the EPA will test/approve this. With their "worst case" testing, I wonder if they will make it be tested where it is always wrong about what you will do.. And what GPS data will be provided on the dyno? Or will this end up as EU option (like the Volt hold mode, which would at least let me do the same thing knowing my own trip).
     
    #7 drinnovation, Jan 16, 2012
  8. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    I suspect the EPA will ignore it. Unless the car forces you to put in a destination before getting out of park. The EPA test is standardized for repeatability. It only follows one 'route' on the dyno. Adding more will increase testing costs and time.

    Some dash mount GPS units already plot efficient routes. They just don't plot one based on the specific car. I don't the EPA is considering testing them.
     
    #8 Trollbait, Jan 17, 2012
  9. spwolf

    spwolf Senior Member

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    i suspect today's cars are already optimized to get most of the epa as it is, this would have no relavance at all. Nor in general with 1.3 kwh battery will it have any relvance to your commute.
     
    #9 spwolf, Jan 17, 2012
  10. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    Since EPA testing already presumes no elevation change on their synthetic route profiles, I bet we can very safely presume that the EPA results will ignore this feature.
     
    #10 fuzzy1, Jan 17, 2012
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