An Evaluation of Discharge Strategies for Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles

Other conference contribution, 2016

Discharge strategies for known routes are tested in a Volvo XC90 T8 PHEV in order to evaluate fuel consumption for the drivetrain of a real commuting cycle. An approximate optimal solution is obtained by dynamic programming. The method is implemented in the vehicle control system and compared to a heuristic strategy. The work has been carried out at Volvo Cars test facilities in Gothenburg. Results show that for a known route both combustion engine and battery efficiency increases in both tested methods, with decreased charge transfer through the battery and less charge sustain operation. The dynamic programming strategy has previously been shown to outperform rule based strategies in terms of fuel consumption by comparing the methods in simulation studies. In this study the dynamic programming solution reduced the consumption with - 4 %, and the heuristic strategy decreased consumption even further to - 8 %.