Ford Global Technologies, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Company, has been assigned patent No. 8,246,422 for a “hybrid electric vehicle thermal management system.”
According to the abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, “The [thermal management] systems [of the vehicle] determine a sunload and set calibrated thresholds and modified temperatures for deriving conditions for sending engine climate commands according to the sunload readings. The calibrations and modifications are designed to yield better vehicle fuel economy.”
