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To better understand the technical challenges of commercial vehicle electrification, BorgWarner converted a production Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) medium duty truck into a fully electrified vehicle. The resulting vehicle includes a newly developed dual-motor rear Beam eAxle driven by a pair of high-performance silicon carbide (SiC) inverters, an 800V battery system, and a new thermal management system customized for the electric vehicle. This paper will detail the conversion process along with the key components involved in the build. The resulting performance of the fully electrified commercial vehicle will be presented in comparison to the original production vehicle. The primary aim is to outline what is entailed in an electric vehicle conversion and to share the learnings gained throughout this build and development process.

The transition towards electrification in commercial vehicles has received more attention in recent years. This paper details the conversion of a production Medium-Duty class-5 commercial truck, originally equipped with a gasoline engine and 10-speed automatic transmission, into a battery electric vehicle (BEV). The conversion process involved the removal of the internal combustion engine, transmission, and differential unit, followed by the integration of an ePropulsion system, including a newly developed dual-motor beam axle that propels the rear wheels. Other systems added include an 800V/99 kWh battery pack, advanced silicon carbide (SiC) inverters, an upgraded thermal management system, and a DC fast charging system. A key part of the work was the development of the propulsion system controls, which prioritized drivability, NVH suppression, and energy optimization.

Worldwide research on alternative fuels has been intensified due to environmental concern and diminishing of conventional fossil fuels reserves. In Brazil, the usage of fossil fuel for the production of sugar cane has been improved over the years, but there still room for improvements. It is estimated that for 1 ton of processed sugar cane about 2 liters of diesel fuel is used. Over the last year, a fleet of around 110,000 agricultural machines and trucks burned about 1.2 billion liters of diesel. Along with the opportunity of reducing the emission of greenhouse gases there is also an economic advantage of using ethanol because it cost the producer about half the price of the diesel fuel. The reasons above motivated us to develop a diesel-ethanol control for diesel engines using a mechanical diesel injection pumps. An add-on system was developed using an ECM used for passenger vehicles to control engines with either 4 or 6 cylinders.

In Brazil the market for small motorcycles had steadily increased during the last decade. Nowadays about 2 million units are produced every year. Market forecasts show that this trend will remain for many years. The amount of pollutant gases emitted by the small motorcycles fleet, begin to be significant. For this reason, the government established emissions laws for motorcycles to be effective since 2003. This law will become stricter over the years up to the point that the use of electronic fuel injection systems for small motorcycles will be a convenient way to adhere to the law. The cost of ethanol fuel is almost half of the gasoline and therefore is the fuel of choice of the majority of drivers. Moreover the use of ethanol is far better than gasoline in terms of emission of green house effect gases. The current motorcycle's fuel delivery systems are not suited to use ethanol.

In Brazil the market for small motorcycles had steadily increased during the last decade. Nowadays more than a 1.5 million units are produced every year. Market forecasts show that this trend will remain for many years. The amount of pollutant gases emitted by the small motorcycles fleet, begin to be significant. For this reason, the government established emissions laws for motorcycles to be effective since 2003. This law will become stricter over the years up to the point that the use of electronic fuel injection systems for small motorcycles will be a convenient way to adhere to the law. The cost of ethanol fuel is almost half of the gasoline and therefore is the fuel of choice of the majority of drivers. Moreover the use of ethanol is far better than gasoline in terms of emission of green house effect gases. The current motorcycle's fuel delivery systems are not suited to use ethanol.

Research involving the use of natural gas in internal combustion engines has been intensified due to concerns with the environment and exhaustion of fossil fuels reserves. In Brazil the abundance of natural gas, together with the need to reduce green house gases emissions and noise of urban busses, presented the opportunity to develop a Diesel-CNG control for Diesel engines using a mechanical diesel pump. An add-on system was developed using a production Engine Control Module. In this system, compressed natural gas (CNG) is added into the intake air stream and a pilot injection of diesel is used to achieve ignition. One advantage of the Diesel-CNG system over a diesel engine converted to CNG usage using spark ignition is that the engine can operate in a diesel only mode; not reducing the resale price of the vehicle to regions less served with CNG fueling stations.

Research involving the use of natural gas in internal combustion engines has been intensified due to concerns with the environment and exhaustion of fossil fuels reserves. In Brazil the abundance of natural gas, together with the need to reduce green house gases emissions and noise of urban buses, presented the opportunity to develop a Diesel-CNG control for Diesel engines using a mechanical diesel pump. An add-on system was developed using a production Engine Control Module. In this system, compressed natural gas (CNG) is added into the intake air stream and a pilot injection of diesel fuel is used to achieve ignition. One advantage of the Diesel-CNG system over a diesel engine converted to CNG usage using spark ignition is that the engine can operate in a diesel only mode; not reducing the resale price of the vehicle to regions less served with CNG fueling stations.

Brazil launched the Ethanol vehicle program in 1979. The production raised to more than 80% and declined to low values due to Ethanol shortage problems. In 2000 E100 usage was fostered again and Delphi developed the Multifuel® System where the vehicle could use fuels with any ethanol percentage. The production of Multifuel vehicles reached 35% and is increasing. Besides that Brazil is experiencing an abundance of CNG. CNG converted vehicles normally use a second ECM, however the performance isn't optimal. In 2004 Delphi developed a MultiFuel-CNG system with one ECM controlling both fuels with little power loss and excellent driveability and fuel consumption.

Ethanol has been used in Brazil as a passenger vehicle fuel since 1979. Until the year 2000, vehicles were made to run exclusively with either gasoline or ethanol. The MultiFuel® engine control module (ECM) was developed allowing vehicles to use fuels with any ethanol percentage, relying only on the existing oxygen sensor as opposed to an add-on ethanol sensor for the percent ethanol evaluation. The use of tank fuel level information allowed for far more robust ethanol percent detection and improved driveability. Four years later, compressed natural gas (CNG) capability was integrated into the MultiFuel® technology. Prior to that, vehicles using CNG normally required a second ECM; however, the performance wasn't always optimal. The MultiFuel® integrated with CNG capability is known as the Tri-Fuel system. It uses only one ECM, seamlessly controlling both liquid (ethanol blends and gasoline) and CNG fuels with little power loss, and excellent driveability and fuel consumption.

In 2003 the European Union adopted a directive for the promotion of biofuels for transport. This directive establishes reference targets for the members states of the European Union for the introduction of biofuels, starting with a proportion of 2% of fuel consumption for road transport in 2005 up to 5.75% in 2010. The biofuels with the largest present market potential in Europe currently seem to be biodiesel and bio-ethanol. On the longer term also synthetic biomass based fuels have a good potential. With the high market share of diesel vehicles in Europe, especially biodiesel has good prospects presently. In 2003 a common European quality standard for biodiesel or FAME (Fatty Acid Methyl Ester) was accepted. The diesel fuel quality standard was also adapted to allow the presence of maximum 5% of biodiesel in diesel fuel, without violating the guarantee from the car manufacturers. So the use of low blends is generally accepted.

Several detailed models has been developed to determine the individual influence of vehicle related components on the calculation of the desired idle engine speed or torque estimation within the engine management system. Depending of the complexity of those models, calibration effort can become a challenge to ensure acceptable results towards drivability and emissions within the given limited development time. Capturing deviations over the lifetime are rarely traced within those models. The aim of this writing is to point out a methodology that is able to simplify existing models and provides a way to include possible variations of components over their lifetime. This approach will be described on calculation of desired idle engine speed and torque estimation for a given engine management concept.