DESIGN AND VALIDATION OF LIGHT-DUTY FC HYBRID VEHICLE FOR URBAN TRANSPORTATION

In the context of rapidly diminishing petroleum supplies, significant changes in both technology and classes of vehicle will need to emerge. It is conceivable to fragment the passenger vehicle market into 3 broad classes: general purpose vehicles as defined today, commuter vehicles with limited range for daily commute and urban-only vehicles restricted to transportation in downtown areas, etc. In this paper, we focus on this last class of vehicles and present a methodology used in the design and optimisation of a light duty FC hybrid Neighbourhood Electric Vehicle. By systematically characterizing and analysing the driving patterns for the vehicle, extensive simulations were used to optimise the powertrain topology and the component sizing. Further optimisation was performed to derive control strategies and control parameters to minimize the fuel consumption, yielding equivalent fuel consumption of the order of 100 MPGGE under urban driving conditions in a 2 passenger vehicle. The simulations and analysis were verified on a laboratory test bench and the complete vehicle architecture was implemented with off-the-shelf technology into a vehicle which has the potential of being commercializable. While this vehicle is only a prototype, this demonstration project shows the great potential for such special purpose vehicles for clean and efficient urban transportation.