“Build Your Hybrid” - A Novel Approach to Test Various Hybrid Powertrain Concepts 2023-01-0546

Powertrain electrification is becoming increasingly common in the transportation sector to address the challenges of global warming and deteriorating air quality. This paper introduces a novel “Build Your Hybrid” approach to experience and test various hybrid powertrain concepts. This approach is applied to the light commercial vehicles (LCV) segment due to the attractive combination of a Diesel engine and a partly electrified powertrain. For this purpose, a demonstrator vehicle has been set up with a flexible P02 hybrid topology and a prototype Hybrid Control Unit (HCU). Based on user input, the HCU software modifies the control functions and simulation models to emulate different sub-topologies and levels of hybridization in the demonstrator vehicle. Three powertrain concepts are considered for LCVs: HV P2, 48V P2 and 48V P0 hybrid. Dedicated hybrid control strategies are developed to take full advantage of the synergies of the electrical system and reduce CO₂ and NO_x emissions. Experimental testing of the demonstrator vehicle on a chassis dynamometer is used to evaluate the control strategy and demonstrate the capabilities of the “Build Your Hybrid” methodology. For the HV P0P2 hybrid configuration, a 3.5% benefit in fuel consumption and a 45% benefit in tailpipe NOx emissions are realized in WLTC compared to the conventional powertrain. For the 48V P2 and P0 hybrid configurations, initial results are available and the control strategy is presented.