Influence of different electrified vehicle concepts and driving cycles on the energetic efficiency of passenger cars

The design of electrified power trains for use in vehicle propulsion systems is a very difficult topic and thus often discussed in research worldwide. Very much effort has been undertaken to obtain simulation and design tools for entire vehicle development. The designed vehicle has to meet multi-objective criterion where to find an optimum for a specific usage. Facing decreasing resources of fossil energy and increasing demand of individual transportation worldwide passenger car designers have to offer new solutions resulting in higher efficiency power trains and perhaps new power train topologies to serve future demands of their customers. One first step towards future design tools is the detailed analyses of the influences of vehicle specific parameters on the efficiency and thus on the energy consumption of the resulting vehicle concept. This work deals with the analyses of different driving cycles representing the usage of the car and different power train topologies which are in the discussion of substituting state of the art power trains with internal combustion engine. The objective of the presented work is also to examine the influence of specific vehicle design parameters and the vehicle usage on the overall efficiency and moreover the distribution of the propulsion energy. The results show that there is no straightforward answer to the best power train. The right choice depends very strong on the prospected usage of the vehicle. Nevertheless the obtained analyses results can serve as a very important input on the design of power trains because they give a good overview on the energy demand of vehicles.