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Electrified powertrains respond to driver demand for vehicle acceleration by producing power through either the electric drive system or an on-board combustion engine or both. In Plug-In Hybrid Vehicles (PHEVs), the powertrain provides the purest form of transportation when responding to driver demand through the electric drive system. We develop a method to size the electric drive system in PHEVs to provide zero emission driving in densely populated urban regions. We use real world data from Europe and calculate instantaneous wheel power during trips. Ray tracing is used to identify the regions where trips occur and the population density of these regions is obtained from an open source dataset published by Eurostat. Regions are categorized by their population density into urban and extra-urban regions. Real world data from these regions is analyzed to determine the wheel power required in urban and extra-urban settings.

The falling cost of lithium ion batteries combined with an ongoing need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is driving the proliferation of affordable long-range battery electric vehicles (BEVs). However, an inherent challenge with longer-range BEVs is the increased time required to fully charge the battery using standard 120/240 V AC power outlets. One approach to address this issue involves moving to higher power onboard AC chargers; however, household and utility wiring may not allow for the full capability of these higher power chargers. This study explores the typical time available for vehicle charging during an overnight stop based on real-world customer “MyFord Mobile” (MFM) data collected from Ford electrified vehicles. Through this approach, the available overnight time for recharging and required energy to be added to the battery are evaluated under the influence of typical daily driving distances, extreme ambient temperatures, and value charging time windows.

The objective of this article is to provide a comprehensive investigation of the opportunities and applications of using solar panels in electrified vehicles. The use of photovoltaic (PV) panels as an auxiliary energy source of on-board fuel in plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), full hybrid electric vehicles (FHEVs), and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) is investigated. The electrical architectures and the benefits of various possible applications are presented, such as active vehicle cabin ventilation, charging the low voltage battery, and charging the high voltage (HV) traction battery to extended driving ranges. In addition, the possibility of using PV panels to cool down the HV battery in extreme temperature environments is also investigated, supported by experimental tests used to properly model the thermal behavior of the HV battery and the effect of the cooling.

In recent years the fuel efficiency of modern hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) powertrains has progressed to a point where low voltage auxiliary electrical system loads have a pronounced impact on fuel economy (FE). While improving the energy consumption of an individual component may result in minor improvements, the collective optimization of such loads across a complete vehicle system can result in meaningful FE gains. Traditional methods using chassis dynamometer testing alone to quantify the impact of a specific auxiliary load can lead to issues where signal state changes are too small for accurate detection. This presents difficulties in accurately predicting the influence of such loads on FE of next-generation electrified vehicles under development. This paper describes a newly developed method where dynamometer test results are combined with computer simulation analyses to create a practical technique for assessing the impact of small changes in auxiliary load energy consumption.

The automotive industry is rapidly expanding its Hybrid, Plug-in Hybrid and Battery Electric Vehicle product offerings in response to meet customer wants and regulatory requirements. One way for electrified vehicles to have an increasing impact on fleet-level CO2 emissions is for their sales volumes to go up. This means that electrified vehicles need to deliver a complete set of vehicle level attributes like performance, Fuel Economy and range that is attractive to a wide customer base at an affordable cost of ownership. As part of “democratizing” the Hybrid and plug-In Hybrid technology, automotive manufacturers aim to deliver these vehicle level attributes with a powertrain architecture at lowest cost and complexity, recognizing that customer wants may vary considerably between different classes of vehicles. For example, a medium duty truck application may have to support good trailer tow whereas a C-sized sedan customer may prefer superior city Fuel Economy.

Legislative emissions requirements, customer expectation and environmental concerns are driving the introduction of Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) technologies. In the European market, where diesel powertrain technology has high penetration, Micro Hybrid technology, featuring engine stop/start plus regenerative charging, is attractive due to system cost versus CO2 emission benefits. The availability of the engine stop/start feature in real world usage depends on the control logic taking account of, for example, safety, comfort or other factors. The research reported here involved developing tools to analyze the duration of automatic engine stop events in real world usage taking account of the situations where automatic engine stop would be unavailable. These tools help determine the durability requirements for key system components, in particular the battery, and estimation of the likely fuel savings as a function of the system calibration.

Hybrid electric powertrain can be a promising and cost-effective technology to meet forthcoming emissions regulations. However, the hybridization of a conventional powertrain remains a complex task. According to their functions, hybrid powertrains can be classified into full-hybrid, mild-hybrid and micro-hybrid, of which micro-hybrid system is regarded as the most cost-effective solution for current regulations. Although a micro-hybrid system employs relatively simple new functions, such as stop/start and regenerative braking, to achieve the target fuel economy with reasonable cost, the engineer must consider many practical aspects in order to deliver a solution which is robust, effective and easy to understand for customers. In this paper the development of a belt-driven integrated starter generator (BISG) micro-hybrid system for a light-duty commercial vehicle application is presented.

The HyTrans project is a collaborative development of a micro hybrid demonstrator vehicle based on an urban delivery van. The project partners consist of Ricardo, Ford, Gates and Valeo and the project is co-funded by the UK Energy Savings Trust under the New Vehicle Technology Fund. A concept study analysis has been performed for an urban delivery van in order to identify the impact of different cost efficient belt driven micro hybrid concepts on fuel consumption performance over representative real world delivery driving conditions.