abstract
- This paper describes the design and optimization of an electric vehicle (EV) prototype which will be built as part of a large collaborative project between researchers and industry. The goal is to develop a long-range EV that can travel 600km on a single charge. To keep the battery mass reasonable, the proposed design combines lithium-ion (Li-ion) cells with lithium-silicon (Li-Si) cells, an emerging battery chemistry which provides a 16% mass reduction compared to lithium-ion cells. In this study, two powertrain topologies are investigated using the dual-battery hybrid energy storage system (HESS). The vehicles are modeled in MATLAB/Simulink and a combined plant-controller optimization study is conducted. The results quantify the energy use benefit from selecting certain sizes of Li-Si packs, and find the Pareto front which characterizes the trade-off between energy use and cost of the emerging battery cell technology.