US Patent Issued to FCA US on July 14 for "Method and system for controlling a retractable bellypan of a vehicle to improve HVAC and engine cooling performance" (Michigan Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 14 -- United States Patent no. 12,679,174, issued on July 14, was assigned to FCA US LLC (Auburn Hills, Mich.).

"Method and system for controlling a retractable bellypan of a vehicle to improve HVAC and engine cooling performance" was invented by Uday Kiran Mahakali (Novi, Mich.) and Sreekanth Surapaneni (Oakland, Mich.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method of controlling a vehicle having a retractable bellypan and a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system determining a condenser temperature of a condenser of the HVAC system, comparing the condenser temperature to a temperature threshold and controlling a bellypan opening in response to comparing."

The...