A comparative study of different electric drive systems and their effects on drive cycle performance of an electric city bus

Abstract

The main challenge in search of the competitive electric bus development is to make the best possible decision among diverse technologies that can overcome the range anxiety within a reasonable cost limit. Therefore electric bus manufacturers have to consider different alternatives. However, to be able to evaluate this wide range of choices, detailed understanding of the impact of diverse technologies on the vehicle energy performance is essential. In this paper different vehicle architectures and different powertrain components for an electric city bus are studied and compared in order to find out the more suitable one in terms of energy efficiency. The model of a 12m long hypothetical electric city bus proposed by Anadolu Isuzu Automotive Industry and Trade Inc. is built in MATLAB®/Simulink environment with a modular structure to help the decision maker to make effective decisions on the overall energy performance of a certain design in the shortest possible time. Furthermore, analyses were conducted for all alternatives over various drive cycles ranging from standard drive cycles to real-world drive cycle for a fair evaluation. Finally, findings gathered through the analyses are represented in the concluding section of the study.