International Journal of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles 

About: International Journal of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles is an academic journal published by Inderscience Publishers. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Electric vehicle & Engineering. It has an ISSN identifier of 1751-4088. Over the lifetime, 248 publications have been published receiving 1823 citations. The journal is also known as: IJEHV.

Rule-based energy management strategies for hybrid vehicles

Abstract: The highest control layer of a (hybrid) vehicular drive train is termed the Energy Management Strategy (EMS). In this paper an overview of different control methods is given and a new rule-based EMS is introduced, based on the combination of Rule-Based and Equivalent Consumption Minimization Strategies (RB-ECMS). The RB-ECMS uses only one decision variable and requires no tuning of many threshold control values and parameters. This decision variable represents the maximum propulsion power of the secondary power source (i.e. electric machine/battery) during pure electric driving. The RB-ECMS is compared with the strategy based on Dynamic Programming (DP), which is inherently optimal for a given cycle. The RB-ECMS proposed in this paper requires significantly less computation time with a similar result to DP (within 1% accuracy).

Energy management for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles using equivalent consumption minimisation strategy

Abstract: One strategy to minimise petroleum fuel consumption of a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) is to attain the lowest admissible battery State of Charge (SOC) at the end of driving cycle while following an optimal SOC profile. The challenge of an optimisation algorithm is to find this optimal profile by using least future information about the power demand. An application of Equivalent Consumption Minimisation Strategy (ECMS) for PHEV is presented in this paper and benchmarked against the dynamic programming (DP) for information requirement and optimality. The optimality is assessed in simulation by considering petroleum fuel economy and deviation of the optimal SOC profile from a reference profile for different driving scenarios and battery sizes. Results show that for longer distances and larger battery sizes, ECMS and DP provide similar fuel economy and SOC profiles. A sensitivity analysis with respect to driving distance is presented at the end of the paper.

Hybrid Vehicle Design Using Global Optimisation Algorithms

Abstract: Four global optimisation algorithms are applied in the design optimisation of a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV). These four algorithms are: DIRECT, Simulated Annealing, Genetic Algorithm, and Particle Swarm Optimisation. The optimisation objective is to achieve maximum fuel economy, subject to the constraints of vehicle performance. The model in the loop methodology is adopted for our design process, in which a vehicle model named PSAT is used as the analysis tool. The design optimisation results and the performance of the four optimisation algorithms are compared. Our initial study shows that DIRECT and Simulated Annealing algorithms are efficient for the complex HEV engineering design problem.

Consumer attitudes towards battery electric vehicles: a large-scale survey

Abstract: Nowadays, Electric Vehicles (EVs) receive a lot of attention. However, their market breakthrough is not straightforward. This paper presents the results of a large-scale data collection (survey with 1196 respondents) held in Flanders (Belgium). The results include perceptions on the advantages and disadvantages of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs), the acceptable driving range, the acceptable charging time (both slow and fast), the acceptable maximum speed, the role of the government in the introduction of BEVs, the preferred governmental tools to maximise sales and the consumers' Willingness to Pay (WTP). A second survey was held in order to investigate the impact of the level of knowledge of the consumers. The results of this second survey (n = 585) illustrate that knowledge has no impact on the level of acceptance for the driving range. However, consumers with more knowledge want a car with a higher maximum speed and desire faster charging durations (both slow and fast).

The effect of driving style on electric vehicle performance, economy and perception

Abstract: It has long been known that driving style has a major impact on the efficiency of conventional combustion engine powered vehicles. Particular aspects of conventional driving such as harsh acceleration and deceleration and poor anticipation have been demonstrated to be unfavourable for clear technical reasons relating to the efficiency of the internal combustion engine at particular speeds and loads. Furthermore, definite trends have been identified in terms of the relationship between age and driving style for conventional vehicles. Little work has been done in this area using electric vehicles. This paper addresses this by presenting a detailed study of the performance of a number of drivers around a standard route in an electric vehicle. In addition to highlighting how particular aspects of driving style influence power consumption and regeneration. We also look at how the drivers perceived the electric vehicle compared to conventional vehicles of the same class.