MATLAB-Simulink Based Tool Development for Early Stage Design of Electric Powertrain during Conversion of Conventional Vehicle into Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle

Electric Vehicles (EV) are becoming more popular due to environmental friendly approach. However, due to the dominance of fossil fuel-based conventional vehicle on road, emission reduction is a crucial task. In spite of continuous efforts to keep emission under control with alternative fuels, emissions are not under control. Conversion of Conventional Vehicle (CV) into Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) is a promising solution to keep emissions under control of present vehicles running on the road as per norms. However, performance is limited by the size of an electric powertrain. Size of electric powertrain and its control strategy decided the fuel economy and emissions of vehicle i.e. the right size of the powertrain components is essential to fully exploit the benefits of the hybridization. The trend of electric powertrain design is from driving cycle. This will give better performance at that particular route only. Hence values are misleading for any other route and this design value can’t be generalized. The paper provides driving cycle independent generalized tool for the design of electric drivetrain during conversion of the conventional vehicle into the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle by fundamental force analogy method to get better performance of the vehicle. The MATLAB-Simulink tool is developed to size electric drivetrain parameters. The design parameters can be given as input which will size the electric powertrain i.e. size of motor and battery. In addition, the tool can be used to size battery of new PHEV. The results obtained confirm the effectiveness of proposed tool and compared with designed values of the vehicle. The size of electric powertrain can be utilized as early stage design during conversion of the conventional vehicle into the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.