Eco-driving for different electric powertrain topologies considering motor efficiency

Abstract

Electrification and automatization may change the environmental impact of vehicles. Current eco-driving approaches for electric vehicles fit the electric power of the motor by quadratic functions and are limited to powertrains with one motor and single-speed transmission or use computationally expensive algorithms. This paper proposes an online nonlinear algorithm, which handles the non-convex power demand of electric motors. Therefore, this algorithm allows the simultaneous optimization of speed profile and powertrain operation for electric vehicles with multiple motors and multiple gears. We compare different powertrain topologies in a free-flow scenario and a car-following scenario. Dynamic Programming validates the proposed algorithm. Optimal speed profiles alter for different powertrain topologies. Powertrains with multiple gears and motors require less energy during eco-driving. Furthermore, the powertrain-dependent correlations between jerk restriction and energy consumption are shown.