Design and analysis of new plug-in hybrid electric vehicle powertrain

In this paper, new plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) powertrain is designed and analyzed. Recently, as vehicle becomes more electrified thanks to progress of battery technology and increased efficiency of downsized engine, there have been many studies on PHEV system. For developing efficient PHEV system, it is important to optimize vehicle powertrain configuration and also powertrain structure of the configuration should be feasible in practical view. This paper concerns design and analysis of the new PHEV powertrain. In the previous study, new PHEV powertrain configurations is designed by adding clutch or changing clutch location in the existing PHEV configuration to use electric motors more actively. Proposed powertrain structure could use two electric motors and an internal combustion engine for propelling vehicle. In this study, the new PHEV powertrain structure is designed. The new powertrain structure has disadvantage of increased weight and volume, however diverse operating mode is possible, thus entire vehicle system’s efficiency could be increased. Engine mode, single motor electric vehicle (EV) mode, two motor EV mode, 3 hybrid mode could be operated in the new powertrain system structure. Powertrain’s gear ratio for each operating mode is considered when designing new powertrain structure. New powertrain configuration is modeled and validated using backward-looking simulation. Optimal component sizing is conducted to raise vehicle’s fuel economy performance using dynamic programming. Structure design of the new PHEV powertrain and vehicle simulation results present validation of newly proposed vehicle system and shows that the improved fuel economy performance could be acquired.