Efficient Power-Split Powertrain for Full Electric Vehicles

Electric vehicles are typically employed in highly-variable operating conditions, especially during city drive. The variability in speed and torque results in suboptimal efficiency of the drive motor. However, recent technological advances in new embedded processing units and power electronics open the way to the adoption of novel efficient control strategies of the electric powertrain. This paper proposes an architecture that in contrast to the use of a single drive electric motor employs two drive motors of smaller size combined through a planetary gear. This power-split full-electric architecture ensures both drive motors to operate in their optimal working range resulting in a higher overall efficiency. A parametric optimization is performed showing an increase in the average efficiency of about 7% with respect to a single motor for the Artemis urban cycle.