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This paper details the first year of modeling and simulation, and powertrain control development for the Wayne State University EcoCAR 3 vehicle. Included in this paper are the processes for developing simulation platforms, plant models and electronic control units to support the supervisory control system development. The EcoCAR 3 competition challenges sixteen North American universities to re-engineer the 2016 Chevrolet Camaro to reduce its environmental impact without compromising its performance and consumer acceptability. The team is in the final stages of competition Year One, which, as the “non-vehicle year,” focuses on the preliminary design, simulation, and hybrid modes selection for the team’s selected vehicle architecture. The team chose a Pre-Transmission Parallel Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) architecture for its performance capability, multiplicity of operational modes, and drivetrain configuration that retains the vehicle’s rear-wheel drive configuration.

This paper details the vehicle testing activities performed during the Year 4 of the EcoCAR 3 competition by the Wayne State University team on a Pre-Transmission Parallel PHEV. The paper focuses on two main testing platforms: the chassis dynamometer and the closed-course track (on-road). The focus of the former is to evaluate the emissions and energy consumption associated with different driving scenarios, while the latter has been used to assess the vehicle performance and their impact on the consumer appeal. The paper presents the objectives of each test, the setup accomplished for the different vehicle testing platforms, the results obtained and the comparison with the values expected from simulations. In addition, the impact of the results on the refinement of the control strategies and on the validation of the simulation models are discussed.