DENSO Announces New Lithium-Ion Battery Pack For Start/stop Systems

DENSO is a Japanese company that produces a wide range of products for the automotive industry. Some of the products the company produces are aimed at automakers producing green vehicles such as hybrids and EVs. One of the technologies that is finding its way into many gasoline-powered vehicles is start/stop systems.

The systems help increase the fuel economy of normal vehicles by turning the engine off when the car stops rather than running the engine at idle burning fuel. The systems are called start/stop and are becoming common options on vehicles ranging from entry-level cheap cars all the way up to high-end sports cars. DENSO has announced a new lithium-ion battery pack for start/stop systems that increases the fuel efficiency of vehicles that use the technology.

The new battery pack allows the start/stop system to use more regenerative power than current systems that feature lead-acid batteries. The battery pack DENSO has created uses a battery management unit and a power supply control switch as well as battery cells. The lithium-ion battery pack is designed to store regenerated power and then supplies that stored power back to the electrical and electronic components the vehicle such as navigation and audio systems.

By using that stored power to operate audio and other systems in the car, the overall load on the engine is reduced allowing it to run less than it would otherwise. Another significant benefit of the new battery pack is that it's air-cooled and doesn't require a dedicated cooling system. Eliminating a dedicated cooling system allows the start/stop system to be lighter and more compact. There is no indication of which vehicle manufacturers may adopt the new start/stop technology.