An investigation on the effect of driver style and driving events on energy demand of a PHEV

Environmental concerns, security of fuel supply and CO2 regulations are driving innovation in the automotive industry towards electric and hybrid electric vehicles. The fuel economy and emission performance of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) strongly depends on the energy management system (EMS). Prior knowledge of driving information could be used to enhance the performance of a HEV. However, how the necessary information can be obtained to use in EMS optimisation still remains a challenge. In this paper the effect of driver style and driving events like city and highway driving on plug in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) energy demand is studied. Using real world driving data from three drivers of very different driver style, a simulation has been exercised for a given route having city and highway driving. Driver style and driving events both affect vehicle energy demand. In both driving events considered, vehicle energy demand is different due to driver styles. The major part of city driving is reactive driving influenced by external factors and driver leading to variation in vehicle speed and hence energy demand. In free highway driving, the driver choice of cruise speed is the only factor affecting vehicle energy demand

Blended rule-based energy management for PHEV : system structure and strategy

This paper proposes a blended rule-based energy management system (EMS) for a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). The proposed EMS is formulated over driving information and vehicle trip energy and not over vehicle speed profiles, as usually seen. The proposed EMS design structure and strategy is described followed by its evaluation. This is the first time a platform for a rule-based acausal EMS has been designed. Performance metrics such as the fuel economy and the number of engine stop-starts are compared with conventional rule-based EMS over real-world destinations with uncertain trip demand. Its performance metrics compared with a conventional EMS for a full parallel PHEV was found to be superior in this paper