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The new European test procedure, called the worldwide harmonized light vehicle test procedure (WLTP), deviates in some details from the current NEDC-based test which will have an impact on the determination of the official EU fuel consumption values for the new vehicles. The adaptation to the WLTP faces automakers with new challenges for meeting the stringent EU fuel consumption and CO2 emissions standards. This paper investigates the main changes that the new test implies to a mid-size sedan electrified vehicle design and quantifies their impact on the vehicles fuel economy. Three common electrified powertrain architectures including series, parallel P2, and powersplit are studied. A Pontryagin’s Minimum Principle (PMP) optimization-based energy management control strategy is developed to evaluate the energy consumption of the electrified vehicles in both charge-depleting (CD) and charge-sustaining (CS) modes.

The automotive industry is rapidly expanding its Hybrid, Plug-in Hybrid and Battery Electric Vehicle product offerings in response to meet customer wants and regulatory requirements. One way for electrified vehicles to have an increasing impact on fleet-level CO2 emissions is for their sales volumes to go up. This means that electrified vehicles need to deliver a complete set of vehicle level attributes like performance, Fuel Economy and range that is attractive to a wide customer base at an affordable cost of ownership. As part of “democratizing” the Hybrid and plug-In Hybrid technology, automotive manufacturers aim to deliver these vehicle level attributes with a powertrain architecture at lowest cost and complexity, recognizing that customer wants may vary considerably between different classes of vehicles. For example, a medium duty truck application may have to support good trailer tow whereas a C-sized sedan customer may prefer superior city Fuel Economy.