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The automotive industry is facing many significant challenges that go far beyond the design and manufacturing of automobile products. Connected, autonomous and electric vehicles, smart cities, urbanization and the car sharing economy all present challenges in a fast-changing environment which the automotive industry must adapt to. Cars no longer are just standalone systems, but have become constituent systems (CS) in larger System of Systems (SoS) context. This is reflected in the emergence of several acronyms such as vehicle-to-everything (V2X), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) expressions. System of Systems are defined systems of interest whose elements (constituent systems) are managerially and operationally independent systems. This interoperating and/or integrated collection of constituent systems usually produce results unachievable by the individual systems alone, for example the use of car batteries as virtual power plants.

Hybridization is a mainstream technology for automobiles, and its application is rapidly expanding in other fields. Marine propulsion is one such field that could benefit from electrification of the powertrain. In particular, for boats to sail in enclosed waterways, such as harbors, channels, lagoons, a pure electric mode would be highly desirable. The main challenge to accomplish hybridization is the additional weight of the electric components, in particular the batteries. The goal of this project is to replace a conventional 4-stroke turbocharged Diesel engine with a hybrid powertrain, without any penalty in terms of weight, overall dimensions, fuel efficiency, and pollutant emissions. This can be achieved by developing a new generation of 2-Stroke Diesel engines, and coupling them to a state-of-the art electric system. For the thermal units, two alternative designs without active valve train are considered: opposed piston and loop scavenged engines.

Ambient temperature is a very sensitive use condition for electric vehicles (EVs), so it is imperative to ensure the maintenance of suitable temperature. This is particularly important in regions characterized by prolonged exposure to unfavorable temperature conditions. In such cases, it becomes necessary to implement insulation measures within parking facilities and allocate energy resources to sustain a desired temperature level. Solar energy is a renewable and environmentally friendly source of energy that is widely available. However, the effectiveness of utilizing solar energy is influenced by various factors, such as the time of day and weather conditions. The use of phase change material (PCM) in a latent heat energy storage (LHES) system has gained significant attention in this field. In contrast to single-phase energy storage materials, PCM offer a more effective heat storage capacity.

As fossil fuels dwindle and more electric vehicles enter the market, there is an opportunity to reevaluate the standard brake system. This paper will discuss and compare the differences in brake system sizing between a non-regenerative braking internal combustion engine vehicle and a dedicated battery electric vehicle with regenerative braking. It will use a model derived from component dynamometer testing and vehicle test data of a mid-size production vehicle. The model will be modified for the mass and regenerative braking capabilities of a battery electric vehicle. The contribution of regenerative braking energy will be analyzed and compared to show its impact on component sizing, thermal sizing, and lining life. The detailed design study will calculate the parameters for caliper, rotor design, actuation, etc., that are optimized for 100% regen enabled vehicles.

Hybrid and electric vehicles utilize high power electric motors to propel the vehicle requiring a significant level of electric current to travel between various modules such as energy storage devices, power inverter modules, energy charging modules, and the motors themselves. This electric current creates magnetic fields around the devices themselves and wiring that delivers this current between devices within the vehicle. These devices and wiring exist throughout the vehicle and can even exist near vehicle occupants, which has prompted investigations looking into the short term biological effect these non-ionizing fields can have on the human body. The findings from these investigations have been published by organizations such as the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), and some nations have passed laws regulating the magnetic and electric field exposure to vehicle occupants.

The automotive industry is aggressively pursuing fuel efficiency improvements through hybridization of production vehicles, and there are an increasing number of racing series adopting similar architectures to maintain relevance with current passenger car trends. Hybrid powertrains offer both performance and fuel economy benefits in a motorsport setting, but they greatly increase control complexity and add additional degrees of freedom to the design optimization process. The increased complexity creates opportunity for performance gains, but simulation based tools are necessary since hybrid powertrain design and control strategies are closely coupled and their optimal interactions are not straightforward to predict. One optimization-related advantage that motorsports applications have over production vehicles is that the power demand of circuit racing has strong repeatability due to the nature of the track and the professional skill-level of the driver.

The world is moving towards E-mobility solutions and Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) are the main enabler towards it. Li-ion cells are the fundamental building block of any BEVs. There are three common types of Li-ion cell design i.e., cylindrical cells, Prismatic Cells and Pouch cells. Ensuring safety of BEVs are critical to gain customer trust and acceptance over Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles. EV fire is found to be one of the major concerns related to using higher energy batteries. During a crash event, Post-Crash Electrical Integrity of the BEV is to be ensured and hence primary focus is on mitigation of Li-ion cell internal short circuit. It has been seen in prior published articles that cell internal short circuit can be triggered by physical intrusion of cell. This paper primarily focusses on simulating the mechanical behavior of cylindrical cell under various crush conditions.

The new control algorithm for parallel hybrid electric vehicle is presented systematically, in which engine operation points are limited within higher efficient area by the control algorithm and the state of charge (SOC) is limited in a range in order to enhance the batteries' charging and discharging efficiency. In order to determine the ideal operating point of the vehicle's engine, the control strategy uses a lookup table to determine the torque output of the engine. The off-line simulation model of parallel HEV power train is developed which includes the control system and controlled objective (such as engine, electric motor, battery pack and so on). The results show that the control algorithm can effectively limite engine and battery operation points and much more fuel economy can be achieved than that of conventional one.

Since road electric vehicles typically require a significantly variable and random load power demand in response to traffic conditions, such as frequent sequences of acceleration and deceleration and uphill followed by downhill runs. In this context, the energy management system of electric vehicle must ensure an effective power distribution between battery and supercapacitor to satisfy load demand. In this paper, the power management control strategy of hybrid energy storage system is developed by introducing terrain information to optimize system efficiency and battery lifetime. In this presented research, we aim at developing a power management control strategy considering the influence of the terrain information on system efficiency and battery lifetime.

General Motors’ 3rd generation eAssist propulsion systems build upon the experience gained from the 2nd generation 115v system and the 1st generation 36v system. Extensive architectural studies were conducted to optimize the new eAssist system to maintain the performance and fuel economy gains of the 2nd generation 115v system while preserving passenger and cargo space, and reducing cost. Three diverse vehicle applications have been brought to production. They include two similar pickup trucks with 5.3 liter V8 engines and 8 speed transmissions, a 4-door passenger car with 2.5 liter 4 cylinder normally aspirated gasoline engine and a 6-speed automatic transmission, and a crossover SUV with a 2.0-liter turbocharged engine and 9 speed transmission. The key electrification components are a new water cooled induction motor/generator (MG), new water cooled power electronics module, and two major variants of 86v lithium ion battery packs.

DC fast charging (DCFC) also referred to as L3 charging, is the fastest charging technology to replenish the drivable range of an electric vehicle. DCFC provides the convenience of faster charging time compared to L1 and L2 at the expense of potentially increased battery health degradation. It is known to accelerate battery capacity fade leading to reduced range and lifetime of the EV battery. While there are active efforts and several means to reduce the downsides of DCFC at cell chemistry level, this trade-off is still an important consideration for most battery cells in automotive propulsion applications. Since DCFC is a customer driven technology, informing drivers of the trade-off of each DCFC event can potentially result in better outcomes for the EV battery life. Traditionally, the driver is advised to limit DCFC events without providing quantifiable metrics to inform their decisions during EV charging.

The poor low-temperature behavior of Li-ion batteries has limited its application in the field of electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles. Many previous studies concentrate on developing new type of electrolyte to solve this problem. However, according to recent research, the key limitation at low temperature is the low diffusivity of lithium ion in the anode electrodes. Hence, it is potential to study anode materials to improve low-temperature behavior of LIBs. ZnFe2O4 with higher theoretical capacity is low toxicity and abundance, contributing to its commercial application. Different ZnFe2O4 crystalline shapes have different particle sizes. Among them, the cubic ZnFe2O4 with smaller particle size will increase its own electronic and ionic conductance at lower temperature. In this regard, we evaluated low-temperature performance of LIBs with ZnFe2O4 cubes as anode materials at -25°C.

This paper describes a novel power management control strategy of battery and supercapacitor hybrid energy storage system to improve system efficiency and battery lifetime. In the presented research, the high and low frequency power demand in the load is separated by a Haar wavelet transform algorithm to overcome the problem of battery overload work and associated degeneration in battery lifetime resulting from an ineffective distribution between battery and supercapacitor. The purpose of frequency distribution is that the supercapacitor is used to share high frequency power components of load power demand to smooth the power demand applied to battery. However, the sole frequency control often fails to realize the optimal utilization of supercapacitor because of the uncertain variation in the driving cycle.

Electric vehicles have a strong potential to reduce a continued dependence on fossil fuels and help the environment by reducing pollution. Despite the desirable advantage, the introduction of electrified vehicles into the market place continues to be a challenge due to cost, safety, and life of the batteries. General Motors continues to bring vehicles to market with varying level of hybrid functionality. Since the introduction of Li-ion batteries by Sony Corporation in 1991 for the consumer market, significant progress has been made over the past 25 years. Due to market pull for consumer electronic products, power and energy densities have significantly increased, while costs have dropped. As a result, Li-ion batteries have become the technology of choice for automotive applications considering space and mass is very critical for the vehicles.

Hybrid high voltage battery pack is not only heavy mass but also large in dimension. It interacts with the vehicle through the battery tray. Thus the battery tray is a critical element of the battery pack that interfaces between the battery and the vehicle, including the performances of safety/crash, NVH (modal), and durability. The tray is the largest and strongest structure in the battery pack holding the battery sections and other components including the battery disconnect unit (BDU) and other units that are not negligible in mass. This paper describes the mass optimization work done on one of the hybrid batteries using CAE simulation. This was a multidisciplinary optimization project, in which modal performance and fatigue damage were accessed through CAE analysis at both the battery pack level, and at the vehicle level.

GM has recently developed two types of plug-in electric vehicles. First is an extended range electric vehicle such as the Volt, and the second is a battery electric vehicle such as the Bolt. An overview, of traction inverter and power module used in GM battery electric vehicles, is presented. IGBT power modules are critical components used in traction inverters for driving GM Electrified Vehicles. IGBT power modules are also described in a benchmarking study using key metrics based on horizontal die configuration, layout and vertical thermal stack. Power Module evaluation test set up, procedure and instrumentation used in GM Power Module Lab, Pontiac, Michigan are described. GM Electrification development journey depends on IGBT power module passive test benches; turn on/off energy loss tester, thermal resistance tester, and slow/fast power cycles testers (fast junction temperature change, in seconds, and slow baseplate temperature change, in minutes).

The performance of a High Voltage (HV) battery in an advanced propulsion application is often highly dependent on the customer controlled climate settings of the vehicle system. Cooling of the battery requires an understanding of the environment in which it is expected to operate. Results from testing on various air-cooled systems will be discussed to portray the interactions of the battery system design and the climate control system design. The following topics (in relation to battery cooling) will be discussed: climate control system temperature settings; climate-control system fan settings; climate control system recirculation mode and outside air mode settings; venting of the battery thermal system exhaust air; and the battery location and mounting.

The battery cell unit and battery module constitute the building blocks for the battery pack in an electric vehicle. It is important to rigorously understand the vibration induced response of the battery pack as it is a prerequisite for the safety of an electric vehicle. An accurate finite element (FE) model plays a key role in predicting the dynamic response of the battery pack simulation. In this paper, finite element analysis (FEA) results are compared with the experimental set up of the battery components and a 60-cell battery module. Using orthotropic elastic constants instead of isotropic properties to model the fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) made battery components produced better modal results correlation. Modal frequency values for the brick components have been improved by 25% to 50%. For the battery module, swapping of mode shape behavior is observed between finite element model and experimental results.

Vehicle electrification is driven globally due to the increased concerns on carbon emissions. But the challenges in customer acceptance remains esp. in relation to vehicle costs. Virtual simulations can help in cutting down product development cost and enable faster launch of new vehicles. An early stage system model based design iterations can help in cutting down the product development costs and building more robust products. In the current paper, we develop and analyze a battery pack system model for early phase design. We extend a previously developed system model to include critical physics like sub-component level multiphysics for electrical joint integrity. Also, we demonstrate an integration of 3D FEM & system model for improving the accuracy of joint temperature predictions during charging and/or discharging. A typical High Voltage (HV) battery system comprises of battery modules (Li-ion cells, cooling channels, structural frames, interconnect boards) and HV bus bars.

Thermal cabin comfort is the largest consumer of battery energy second only to propulsion in Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV’s). Accurate prediction of thermal comfort in the vehicle cabin with fast turnaround times will allow engineers to study the impact of various thermal comfort technologies and develop energy efficient Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems. In this study a novel data-driven model based on physics-guided Sparse Identification of Nonlinear Dynamics (SINDy) method was developed to predict Equivalent Homogeneous Temperature (EHT), Mean Radiant Temperature (MRT) and cabin air temperature under transient conditions and drive cycles. EHT is a recognized measure of the total heat loss from the human body that can be used to characterize highly non-uniform thermal environments such as a vehicle cabin. The SINDy model was trained on drive cycle data from Climatic Wind Tunnel (CWT) for a representative Battery Electric Vehicle.