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Electric driving is generally limited to short distances in an emission sensible urban environment. In the present situation with high cost electric storage and long charging duration hybridization is the key to enable electric driving. In comparison to the passenger car segment, where numerous manufacturers are already producing and offering different hybrid configurations for their premium class models, the two wheeler sector is not yet affected by this trend. The main reason for the retarded implementation of this new hybrid technology is its high system costs, as they cannot be covered by a reasonable product price. Especially for the two wheeler class L1e, with a maximum speed of 45 km/h and an engine displacement of less than 50 cm₃, the cost factor is highly important and decisive for its market acceptance, because the majority of vehicles are still low-cost products equipped with simple carbureted 2-stroke engines.

The demand for high efficiency powertrains in automotive engineering is further increasing, with hybrid powertrains being a feasible option to cope with new legislations. So far hybridization has only played a minor role for L-category vehicles. Focusing on an exemplary high-power L-category on-road vehicle, this research aims to show a new development approach, which combines longitudinal dynamic simulation (LDS) with “Design of Experiments” (DoE) in course of hybrid electric powertrain development. Furthermore, addressing the technological aspect, this paper points out how such a vehicle can benefit from 48V-hybridization of its already existing internal combustion powertrain. A fully parametric LDS model is built in Matlab/Simulink, with exchangeable powertrain components and an adaptable hybrid operation strategy. Beforehand, characterizing decisions as to focus on 48V and on parallel hybrid architecture are made.

In recent years, E-mobility relevance has increased in the automotive sector, yet pure electric vehicles struggle to establish themselves in the still internal combustion engine (ICE) dominated sector of L-category and powersport applications. Battery electric hybrid L-category vehicles, as considered in this paper, combine both ICE and electric powertrains. Nowadays, numerous ICE L-category vehicles use rubber V-belt continuous variable transmissions (CVT) due to their reliability and user-friendliness, which often outweighs the drawback of relatively low efficiency. This paper not only aims to show, with the help of longitudinal dynamic simulation (LDS), how a state-of-the-art L-category ICE powertrain with special focus on the CVT can benefit from hybridization in terms of overall efficiency, but furthermore points out where the efficiency increase actually comes from and how this new knowledge can be implemented intelligently into a hybrid strategy.