[RahulNagaraj]

According to a media report, BMW has filed a patent at the German Patent Office for a new regenerative suspension system.

As the name suggests, the new suspension system from the German car brand is said to be capable of harvesting energy as it absorbs the shock from a bump when the EV travels over a rough piece of tarmac.



With the auto industry rapidly transitioning to fully electric vehicles, automakers are finding new ways to boost EV range. In this race, BMW is redesigning the suspension, a part which traditionally wastes energy to support wheel movement.

The patent images showcase an innovative design that allows BMW's EVs to produce usable energy while the wheels move in reaction to a speed bump. The harnessed energy from the suspension is then sent to a generator unit that converts it to usable electricity, in turn charging the car's battery.

However, this new suspension system is still in its patent stages. Whether the German car brand will bring the tech to the market needs to be seen.

Source: CarBuzz


Link to Team-BHP news

[agambhandari]

Looks like a solution well suited to Indian roads, all BMW EVs will be running around with full charge with all the bumps around. LOL

[PreludeSH]

Would capture lot of energy in our country's road conditions . Not sure if the cost to produce it justifies the energy captured. Also with stiffer suspensions not sure how much energy BMWs will be able to capture.

[v1p3r]

This has been around for a while. There were a bunch of Indian students who patented it and I think a startup claiming a similar product.

[ani_meher]

In India, such vehicles can contribute to national grid, producing excess electricity by simple day-to-day commute.

Mostly people who will be afford such cars will be staying in countries / areas with good roads, so that may negate the cost benefit. Interesting technology, nonetheless!

[Asish_VK]

Great for Bangalore roads. Owners can now charge their BMW + Their house inverter + another beater electric car and then make money by selling excess electricity to the Grid.

Jokes apart, this is a cool invention, kudos to whoever came up with this idea.

[Jeroen]

It is an interesting idea. I just don’t understand why the BMW boffins chose this mechanical electronic free wheeling generator set up. Seems to complicated to me.

Why not use induction principle? The suspension is constantly moving up and down so add a coil and some pick ups and Bob’s your uncle? Of course, I am not a boffin by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a pretty low tech solution on a very high tech car I think. Maybe it’s the only way they could get a decent enough charge out of this thing?

Would be interesting to see some performance figures when turned into reality

Jeroen

[Vishwath P]

The inspiration for this must have definitely come from their design and research team's visit to India (and especially Chennai).

[saikarthik]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Why not use induction principle? The suspension is constantly moving up and down so add a coil and some pick ups and Bob’s your uncle? Of course, I am not a boffin by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a pretty low tech solution on a very high tech car I think. Maybe it’s the only way they could get a decent enough charge out of this thing?

Jeroen

It's a very old concept indeed. Audi had a patent in 2016 similar to this, but mechanisms and principles vary slightly. I was discussing to apply for a patent on this around 2016 (overall concept, not exactly the same as this one) and found that Audi had patented it already and my colleagues lost hope though ours's was based on linear generators like you described which could act in reverse as well like the 'magneto rheological suspension' but without the fluid. I then tried to push my previous org to patent something which generates electricity on a different concept (can' disclose), but very few try to understand the differences in methods, many stop at overall concept and say novelty is gone!

Image for reference only

Source: https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/a...from-movement/

[turbospooler]

Found few other iterations dating back from 2009.

https://www.wired.com/2013/08/genshock/

This is that time of solution which seems so obvious AFTER it has been proposed.
Very innovative and cool.

This is the type of ground-up redesigning is required when making an EV rather than just plonking batteries and an electric motor.

[PreludeSH]

I hope someone implements a system on road which generates power and lights up warning lights on the road humps in this country. A device over which when the car moves at a distance from the hump doing this.

Damping suspension and using it to store power is useful since damping the suspension is the primary function that serves a useful purpose.