Battery Benchmarking and Cyclelife Test Methods

Paper in proceeding, 2010

The energy storage in an HEV powertrain is probably the most critical component regarding total cost, reliability and performance. Hence, substantial and fundamental knowledge about battery performance, battery lifetime and system design is vital for the outcome of the hybridisation of vehicles for road transport. In particular, the hybridisation of heavy-duty vehicles faces severe challenges with first and foremost cost and accurate estimation of cyclelife and dynamic performance. This paper presents new test methods for energy storage benchmarking and cyclelife testing. The method is developed to address critical performance measures for HEVs such as peak power, energy and efficiency. To evaluate the method a limited series of laboratory tests of a Li-ion cell is performed. A short comparison to test results from standardised test methods is also included to highlight different aspects of the subject. In addition, issues and methods related to load cycle development for cyclelife is discussed. In particular, the use of synthetic load cycles extracted from measured battery usage is evaluated by comparing test results from ongoing cyclelife tests.