Optimization of the powertrain of electric vehicles for a given route

Abstract

The global challenge to reduce emissions of polluting gases and greenhouse gases has forced the development of alternatives to the traditional internal combustion engine vehicles, such as electric or hybrid vehicles. The electric powertrain are the most efficient for delivery trucks or urban buses, due to acceleration and deceleration patterns make them inefficient for using internal combustion engines. Despite this, its range and purchase cost are the main factors limiting the use of electric vehicles in these applications. Range and purchase cost of an electric vehicles are mainly related to the energy storage system. Therefore, the optimum size of the battery pack should be considered as the design goal of a vehicle when its application is known. This paper presents a methodology to optimize the battery pack of an electric vehicle according to a given route run in a target time. Therefore, it would be applicable to delivery vehicles, buses and any vehicle whose route and travel time are known in advance. The proposed methodology allows minimizing the energy consumption by determining the optimal powertrain ratio for a given track, setting the travel time as an objective. A full vehicle model and a multi-objective genetic algorithms are used for this matter.