Modern automotive power systems: Advancements into the future

The recent trend in the automotive industry is to create a new fleet of advanced vehicular technologies. The most popularly targeted automotive technology is the hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) powered by the existing internal combustion engine (ICE) technology as well as a suitable electric traction motor system. In addition, the auto industry has shown an increased interest in fuel cell vehicles (FCV) as well as battery electric vehicles (BEV), which probably might become the solutions to the inevitable oil shortage scenario that will face the world in about 50 years' time. This paper aims at providing a detailed technological overview of proposed HEV, FCV, and BEV automotive technologies. Furthermore, this paper will present a brief comparative analysis of the above-mentioned advanced vehicular systems from the point of view of the overall cost, fuel economy, and well-to-wheels (WTW) efficiency. A brief summary of commercially available HEVs and developed FCV prototypes will be presented as well. © 2006 IEEE.