IV-I (R20) Fundamentals of Electric Vehicles

UNIT - 3
EVOLUTION OF HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES
❖ Generally speaking, a hybrid car is any car that uses more than one fuel source.
❖ Nowadays, however, we mainly use the term to describe cars that combine a
gas-fueled internal combustion engine with a battery-driven electric motor.
❖ Until the early 1990s such hybrid electric vehicles (or HEVs) were relatively rare, but
the success of the Toyota Prius raised public awareness of these gas-saving vehicles
and spawned a number of similar cars from manufacturers such as Honda (the Honda
Insight) and Ford (the Ford Fusion Hybrid).
❖ Fuel-efficient vehicles are a rapidly growing segment within the auto industry and
help us achieve the ideal of green driving.
❖ The history of hybrid electric vehicles, however, began shortly after the dawn of the
20th century. Here are some of the highlights of that history:
1900: The Lohner-Porsche Elektromobil makes its debut at the Paris Exposition. Although
initially a purely electric vehicle, designer Ferdinand Porsche added an internal combustion
engine to recharge the batteries, making it the first hybrid electric vehicle.
1916: Woods Motor Vehicle Company introduces the Woods Dual Power, a hybrid electric
vehicle with a 4-cylinder internal combustion engine. The Dual Power had a top speed of
around 35 mph (56.3 k/ph). It was not a success.
1968: General Motors develops the GM XP 512, an experimental vehicle that can run on
electricity at low speeds and gasoline at high speeds.
1973: Electrical engineer Victor Wouk builds a prototype HEV based on the 1972 Buick
Skylark. When the United States Environmental Protection Agency decided not to invest in
the vehicle's further development, Wouk ran out of money and abandoned the project.
1989: Audi demonstrates the experimental Audi Duo. It combines a 12-horsepower electric
motor with a 139-horsepower internal combustion engine. Audi develops further generations
of the Duo over much of the following decade.
1997: In response to a challenge from Executive Vice President Akihiro Wadi to develop
more fuel-efficient vehicles, Toyota introduces the Prius and begins marketing it in Japan.
1999: Honda introduces the Insight.
2000: Toyota begins marketing the Prius (as a 2001 model) in the United States.
2002: Hybrids start to become fairly common in the marketplace. Honda introduces the
Accord Hybrid. Many more hybrid cars follow over the next few years.
2004: Ford introduces the first hybrid SUV, the 2005 Ford Escape.

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ADVANTAGES OF HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES

1. Environmentally Friendly
A hybrid vehicle runs on a twin-powered engine (gasoline engine and electric motor)
that cuts fuel consumption and conserves energy. Sure, it still uses gasoline, but the
amount it needs to operate is significantly reduced.
2. Idle-off
Incorporating a secondary electric motor provides a considerable number of benefits
to the vehicle that includes "idle-off." It means that the car is operational even when
the main engine is turned off. As a result, features like air-conditioning, radio and
others are operated via batteries.
3. Quick Acceleration
This feature in hybrid car technology allows the car to alter from an electric motor to
the main engine when more power is required. This is more common when travelling
uphill.
4. Power Assist
A significant hybrid car benefit is its potential to downsize the primary engine,
leading to better fuel economy.
Many hybrid cars use electric motors during start-up and initial stages of the
acceleration till they reach higher speeds. After this, they use gasoline engines to
enhance fuel efficiency.
5. Regenerative Braking
This is one of the best features found in hybrid cars. Regenerative braking allows
kinetic energy to convert into electric energy that recharges the battery unit.
The engine in reverse mode is run by a forward movement of the vehicle's wheels.
This helps reduce the car's speed and recharge at the same time.
6. Built From Light Materials
Hybrid vehicles are made of lighter materials, meaning less energy is required to run
them. The engine is also smaller and lighter, which also saves a lot of energy.

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Difference between Electric Vehicles and Hybrid Electric Vehicles

Below are the key differences between electric vehicles and HEVs.

Parameters Electric Vehicles Hybrid Electric Vehicles

Primary Power Source Electricity Gasoline Fuel

Working mechanism Electric motor powers The IC engine and electric motor
the wheels. work in tandem to propel the vehicle.

Battery charging You need to plug into You don't need to plug into an
a power source to external power source as the battery
charge the battery gets charged via
pack. generator/regenerative braking.

Emission levels EVs produce zero HEVs are Low Emission Vehicles
emission. (LEVs) since they produce fewer
emissions than conventional vehicles.

Running cost Low High

Upfront cost (Price) High Lower than electric vehicles.

Driving range Low High

Vehicle life You can use an EV You can drive an HEV for a longer
until the battery pack period since an IC engine lasts longer
lasts. than a battery pack.

ARCHITECTURE OF HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES

➢ Electric vehicles (EVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid vehicles
(PHEV) and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) all have an electric powertrain
component whether or not they have another engine equipped mechanical powertrain
component.

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IV-I (R20) Fundamentals of Electric Vehicles

➢ The placement of the different powertrain components in the EVs and hybrid vehicles
with respect to each other is referred to as the architecture of the vehicle.
➢ The configuration of a battery electric vehicle (BEV) has the simplest architecture
with the powertrain consisting of an electric machine, a power electronics converter
and a gearbox.
➢ In HEVs, there is an additional powertrain, and at least two fuel sources feeding into
their respective energy converters.
Electric Vehicles
➢ The BEV powered by only one or more electric machines has the most
straightforward architecture without the need for power blending.
➢ The detailed structure of an EV system along with the interaction among its various
components is shown in Figure.
➢ The primary components of an EV system are the motor, controller, power source and
transmission.

Hybrid Electric Vehicles

➢ The term “hybrid vehicles” in general usage refers to vehicles with two or three
different types of sources delivering power to the wheels for propulsion.
➢ The most common hybrid vehicles have an IC engine and one or more electric
machines for vehicle propulsion.
➢ The IC engine can be used to generate electric energy ‘on-board’ to power the electric
machines.
➢ An electric machine can be operated both as a motor and as a generator.
➢ Vehicle architectures with only one electric machine use it both for electric power
generation and for vehicle propulsion power.

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➢ In hybrid vehicles, the traction electric motors can operate independently or in

association with the IC engine to power the wheels depending on the type of vehicle
architecture.
➢ There are several ways of classifying hybrid vehicles; the most common approach is
based on the path of energy flow from its store to the wheels through the power
transmission paths.
➢ In a HEV, the propulsion power is transmitted to the wheels through either the
mechanical power transmission path or the electric power transmission path or the
combination of the two.
➢ The mechanical path is made of an IC engine and a transmission, whereas the
electrical path consists of an energy storage system, a generator, a propulsion motor
and a transmission.
➢ The vehicle powertrain is designed to meet the vehicle base load requirements as well
as the peak load requirements during acceleration and starting.
➢ The arrangement of the hybrid powertrain components in the power transmission path
gives rise to the architecture-based hybrids known as series, parallel and
series–parallel hybrids.
a) Series Hybrids
➢ A series hybrid is one in which only one energy converter can provide propulsion
power.
➢ The IC engine acts as a prime mover in this configuration to drive an electric
generator that delivers power to the battery or energy storage link and the propulsion
motor.
➢ The components’ arrangement of a series HEV is shown in Figure.

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Working of Series Hybrids

❖ Series HEV is the simpler type where only the electric motor provides all the
propulsion power to the wheels.
❖ A downsized IC engine drives a generator, which supplements the batteries and can
charge them when they fall below a certain state of charge (SoC).
❖ Beyond the IC engine and the generator, the propulsion system is exactly the same as
that in an EV.
Advantages of a series hybrid architecture can be summarised as follows:
● Flexibility of location of engine-generator set.
● Simplicity of drivetrain.
● Suitable for short trips with stop and go traffic.
Disadvantages of a series hybrid architecture are as follows:
● It needs three propulsion components: IC engine, generator and motor.
● The motor must be designed for the maximum sustained power that the vehicle may
require, such as when climbing a high grade. However, the vehicle operates below the
maximum power for most of the time.
● All three drivetrain components need to be sized for maximum power for
long-distance sustained, high-speed driving. This is required since the batteries will
exhaust fairly quickly leaving the IC engine to supply all the power through the
generator.
b) Parallel Hybrids
➢ A parallel hybrid is one in which more than one energy conversion device can deliver
propulsion power to the wheels.
➢ The IC engine and the electric motor are configured in parallel with a mechanical
coupling that blends the torque coming from the two sources.
➢ The components’ arrangement of a parallel hybrid is shown in Figure.

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Working of Parallel Hybrids

❖ The drawback of the series configuration is the size of the electrical traction motor,
which has to be rated for the maximum power requirement of the vehicle.
❖ The drawback can be removed if the engine is used in parallel with the electric
machine to supply power to the wheels.
❖ This is called a parallel architecture where both the IC engine and the electric motor
are connected to the driveshaft through transmission and clutch.
❖ In the parallel HEV, the power requirements of the electric motor in the parallel
hybrid are lower than that of an EV or series hybrid, since the IC engine complements
for the total power demand of the vehicle.
❖ The propulsion power may be supplied by the IC engine alone, by the battery-motor
set, or by the two systems in combination.
Advantages of a parallel hybrid architecture are as follows:
● It only needs two propulsion components: IC engine and motor/generator. In parallel
HEV, motors can be used as generators and vice versa.
● A smaller engine and a smaller motor can be used to get the same performance, until
batteries are depleted. For short-trip missions, both can be rated at half the maximum
power to provide the total power, assuming that the batteries are never depleted. For
long-distance trips, the engine may be rated for the maximum power, while the
motor/generator may still be rated to half the maximum power or even smaller.
Disadvantages of a parallel hybrid architecture are as follows:
● The control complexity increases significantly, since power flow has to be regulated
and blended from two parallel sources.
● The power blending from the IC engine and the motor necessitates a complex
mechanical device.
c) Series - Parallel Hybrids
➢ The parallel hybrid architecture is better suited to passenger vehicles where the
electric motor and IC engine can be operated in parallel to deliver high performance
when higher power is required.
➢ On the other hand, the series hybrid architecture is equipped with a small output
engine that can always be operated in its most efficient operating region to generate
electrical power.
➢ The output electric power can be used directly to drive the propulsion motor or charge
the energy storage system.

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➢ Series hybrid vehicles tend to be heavy and typically have difficulty meeting
acceleration requirements since the powertrain components need to be sized for the
maximum continuous output power for charge-sustaining operation.
➢ The advanced hybrids combine the benefits of series and parallel architectures into a
series– parallel hybrid architecture with charge-sustaining capability.
➢ The architecture is relatively more complicated, involving additional mechanical links
and controls compared to the series hybrid, and an additional generator compared to
the parallel hybrid.
➢ The vehicle is primarily a parallel HEV but with a small series element added to the
architecture.
➢ The small series element ensures that the battery charge is sustained in prolonged wait
periods such as in traffic lights or in a traffic jam.
➢ The controller for the series–parallel architectures effectively utilises the IC engine
and electric motors to deliver up to their maximum capabilities through flexible
adaptation with driving conditions.
➢ The series–parallel architecture is the one that has been used in the first ever
commercially available hybrid vehicle, the Toyota Prius.

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