Multiple electrical machines applied for high drive train efficiency

Paper in proceeding, 2018

Conventionally, electric powertrain in battery electric vehicles are designed and optimized for a particular vehicle category and performance requirements. In this paper the design of an electric powertrain using two different type of machines is proposed with a focus on the design of electric
machines. The powertrain is dimensioned by analyzing vehicle specifications, both combustion based and electric, vehicle performance requirements and wheel load analysis performed on simplified vehicle models using standard drive cycles. Two different vehicle models representing a small and medium size vehicle are used. To compare the distributed drive topology with two different machines, a third machine is designed to represent conventional electric powertrain. The proposed drive system is observed to achieve similar peak torque and power as the centralized drive using single machine. However, the proposed design of the powertrain resulted in slightly higher operating efficiency while providing a scalability of performance.