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Their easy availability, lower well-to-wheel emissions, and relative ease of use with existing engine technologies have made ethanol and ethanol-gasoline blends a viable alternative to gasoline for use in spark-ignition (SI) engines. The lower energy density of ethanol and ethanol-gasoline blends, however, results in higher volumetric fuel consumption compared with gasoline. Also, the higher latent heat of vaporization can result in cold-start issues with higher-level ethanol blends. On the other hand, a higher octane number, which indicates resistance to knock and potentially enables more optimal combustion phasing, results in better engine efficiency, especially at higher loads. This paper compares the fuel consumption and emissions of two ethanol blends (E50 and E85) with those for gasoline when used in conventional (non-hybrid) and power-split-type plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).

Limited battery power and poor engine efficiency at cold temperature results in low plug in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) fuel economy and high emissions. Quick rise of battery temperature is not only important to mitigate lithium plating and thus preserve battery life, but also to increase the battery power limits so as to fully achieve fuel economy savings expected from a PHEV. Likewise, it is also important to raise the engine temperature so as to improve engine efficiency (therefore vehicle fuel economy) and to reduce emissions. One method of increasing the temperature of either component is to maximize their usage at cold temperatures thus increasing cumulative heat generating losses. Since both components supply energy to meet road load demand, maximizing the usage of one component would necessarily mean low usage and slow temperature rise of the other component. Thus, a natural trade-off exists between battery and engine warm-up.

Conventional friction brakes suffer severe limitations, including challenging integration with electronic driving aids. The integration of an eddy-current brake with the conventional friction brake was developed to remedy to these shortcomings [1]. The present work analyzes the impact of eddy-current brakes uses in conjunction with conventional friction brakes in both conventional and hybrid automobiles.

Hydrogen is the preferred fuel for low-temperature fuel cells that are envisioned by some for future transportation. A pure hydrogen supply is technically challenging, presently uneconomical, energetically costly and dangerous in many respects. The use of hydrogen carriers, hydrogen-rich chemicals is supposed to overcome these impediments. Among the several possible hydrogen carriers [1], ammonia is an interesting candidate that has benefited from some research in the 1960s and recently for fuel cells [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26], internal combustion engines [3, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, and 35] and gas turbines [36, 37]. This paper summarizes the past research on ammonia as a hydrogen carrier for fuel cell based transportation. The physical and chemical properties, the production, the storage, the safety aspects, and the on-board processing of ammonia are summarized.

Military and civilian vehicles are moving towards more electrification, in response to the increasing demand for multi-mode missions, fuel consumption and emissions reduction, and dual use electrical and electronic components. Consequently, the vehicle electric load is increasing rapidly. For military vehicles, these electrical loads include: the loads for electric traction (EV and HEV), cabin climate conditioning, vehicle control and actuation, actuation by wire (X by wire), sensors, reconnaissance, communications, weapons etc. All these requirements need to be supported by an efficient, fast responding and high capacity energy storage system. The electric load of a vehicle can be decomposed into two components--- static and dynamic loads. The static component is slowly varying power with limited magnitude, whereas the dynamic load is fast varying power with large magnitude. The energy storage system, accordingly, comprises of two basic elements.

Unlike internal combustion engines, fuel cells cannot deliver full power upon cold start. Furthermore, while low temperature fuel cells are capable of cold start, medium and high temperature fuel cells are not and must be artificially heated to start. This paper analyzes the warm-up energy requirements of the three medium and high-temperature fuel cell technologies and their influence on the vehicle fuel consumption over various drive cycles. The appropriateness of each technology for a given type of vehicle is assessed. It is found that high temperature fuel cells are inadequate for the intermittent use characteristic of vehicles drive cycles. More research is required as this study is inconclusive for medium temperature fuel cells.

The depletion of the world oil reserves is a major problem facing the world community today. The number of years that oil resources can support our energy needs depends on its proven reserves, new discovery and cumulative consumption. As more countries evolve from developing nations into industrialized societies, the number of vehicles on the road skyrockets. This drastically increasing number of cars on the road is one of the main causes of the rapid depletion of the world oil resources. It also impacts the environment in the form of acid rain, global warming and increased concentrations of ozone near the surface of the earth. This basically leaves two alternatives, stipend the growth of industry or reduce the fuel usage of our vehicles. Recession is not very enjoyable, therefore great efforts are being made to improve the fuel efficiency of modern vehicles, but due to the physical characteristics of internal combustion engines, there is an efficiency limit.

Due to their harsh operating environments, military vehicle drive trains have special requirements. These special requirements are usually represented by hill climbing ability, obstacle negotiation, battlefield cross country travel, hard acceleration, high speed, etc. These special requirements need the vehicle drive train to have a wider torque and speed range characteristics than commercial vehicles. We have proved that larger constant power ratio in electric motor can significantly enhance the vehicle acceleration performance. In other words, for the same acceleration performance, large constant power ratio can minimize the power rating of the traction motor drive, thus minimizing the power rating of the power source (batteries for instance). Actually, extension of the constant power range can also significantly enhance the gradeability, which is crucial for military vehicles.

Currently, almost all the activities in the development of new generation of vehicles are focused on fuel cell powered vehicles (FCVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). However, there are still uncertainties as to which provides the maximum benefits in terms of performance, energy savings and impact on the environment. This paper compares the performance and parameter characteristics of FCVs and HEVs with a view towards an objective assessment of the relative performance of these vehicles. In particular, this paper reviews major characteristics of FCVs as zero or ultra-low emission vehicles (ZEV/ULEVs), their presumed high efficiency and potential for using alternative fuels, while also considering their limited performance at high power demands.

Significant amount of energy is lost in frequent braking, automatic transmission and engine idling for a conventional engine powered passenger car while driving in cities. In this paper, a mild hybrid vehicle drive train has been introduced. It uses a small electric motor with floating stator, called TRANSMOTOR and small and a battery pack. The transmotor functions as a generator, engine starter, frictionless clutch (electric torque coupler), regenerative braking and propelling. The mild hybrid drive train can effectively reduce the urban-driving fuel consumption by regenerative braking, eliminate of energy losses in conventional automatic transmission and engine idling. The drive train can use low voltage system (42V for example), due to the low electric power rating, and is more similar to conventional drive train than full hybrid vehicle. Therefore, less effort is needed to evolve it from conventional vehicles.

Hydrogen is the only fuel for fuel-cells. It may be stored pure onboard the vehicle, but this approach is difficult. It is preferable to attach hydrogen to other elements to form a hydrogen carrier, which will be cracked onboard to feed the fuel-cell. This paper explains the concept of hydrogen carriers, details their preferred characteristics, and compares thoroughly the available candidates.

The main idea in the concept of advanced vehicles is to combine two or more power plants in order to improve the overall efficiency of the vehicle. The modeling of advanced vehicle is challenging, mainly because of the presence of several power plants in the system. After a presentation of the generalized equivalent circuit theory, including the electrical analogy and the theory of generalized gyrators and transformers, the modeling technique is compared to existing methods. Then, vehicle subsystems are modeled from the mechanical drive train to the different power plants and energy storages, according to the methodology. Some typical hybrid architectures are processed through the modeling technique and a final equivalent circuit is presented and discussed for each of them. Finally, the study of electromechanical interactions and mechanical transients is presented.

In this paper, a mild hybrid drive train has been proposed. A small electric motor with low rated voltage (42 V) is used to (1) propel the vehicle at low speed, (2) replace the fluid-coupled torque converter and (3) realize regenerative braking. With proper design and control, the fuel economy in urban driving can be significantly improved without much change from conventional drive train to the mild hybrid drive train.

Studying the dynamics of electric motor drives is not easy. Indeed, there is no unified approach to model both the mechanical and the electrical elements of the motor drive in order to bring an intuitive understanding of the dynamic behavior. Moreover, for traction purposes, the machines are often used at field-weakening operation, which can be a source of unwanted oscillations. In this paper, the gyrator-based equivalent circuit modeling is presented. The method allows the understanding of some aspects of the dynamic behavior of DC motor drives such as the interaction between electric inductances and the rotor inertia and their oscillating behavior.

With the increase of hotel and ancillary loads and replacement of engine driven mechanical and hydraulic loads with electrical loads, automotive systems are becoming more electric. This is the concept of More Electric Cars (MEC) that necessitates a higher system voltage, such as the proposed 42V, for conventional cars. In this paper, the development of the 42V electric power system for vehicle applications is reviewed. The system architecture and motor drive problems associated with the 42V electric power system are analyzed. Solutions to these problems are also discussed.

The desirable braking system of a land vehicle is that it can stop the vehicle or reduce the vehicle speed as quickly as possible, maintain the vehicle direction stable and recover kinetic energy of the vehicle as much as possible. In this paper, an electronically controlled braking system for EV and HEV has been proposed, which integrates regenerative braking, automatic control of the braking forces of front and rear wheels and wheels antilock function together. When failure occurs in the electric system, the braking system can function as a conventional man-actuated braking system. Control strategies for controlling the braking forces on front and rear wheels, regenerative braking and mechanical braking forces have been developed. The braking energy that can be potentially recovered in typical driving cycle has been calculated. The antilock performance of the braking system has been simulated.

A general design methodology of the fuel cell powered hybrid vehicle drive train has been developed. With the methodology and a computer simulation program, all of the systematic parameters can be designed, such as, the rated power of the electric motor drive, fuel cell system, peaking power source as well as the energy capacity. An overall control strategy has also been developed. The main function of the control strategy is to properly control the power produced by the fuel cell system and the peaking power source, so as to meet the power demand, maintain the energy level of the peaking power source in its optimal region and operate the fuel cell system within its high efficiency region. In this paper, a design example has also been introduced in each section.

The concept of hybrid drive trains was first developed for automobiles. These drive trains allow achieving a minimum fuel consumption by properly matching the driving requirements and the engine characteristics. In this paper the authors analyze the possibility of extending this concept to railway vehicles. Basic hybrid railway vehicles are designed and discussed.

There is a growing interest in electric and hybrid electric vehicles (EV and HEV) due to their high efficiency and low emission. In EV and HEV, the characteristic of the traction motor is essential for the performance and efficiency of the EV and HEV. In this paper, the advantages of the extended constant power range characteristic of the traction motor for both propulsion and regenerative braking are analyzed. Simulation results are presented to verify the conclusions. Due to its several inherent advantages, especially its capability of having an extended constant power range, Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM) is proposed as the candidate of the traction motor in EV and HEV. The design methodology of SRM for achieving an extended constant power range and the control strategy of SRM for regenerative braking in EV and HEV are presented.

Short circuit incidents on traction motors can cause ‘wheel-locking’ on the vehicle, and may have an adverse impact on vehicle stability. This paper investigates the necessity of fault-tolerant motors for EV and HEV traction applications. Reaction of resulting fault torques differ along with electric motor types and fault variety. The paper analyzes the short-circuit behavior of three basic motor types: permanent magnet, induction and switched reluctance motor. The analysis is based on the transient simulation of the three most common inverter short-circuit cases and their effect on vehicle stability.