Enhancing Energy Saving Opportunities through Rightsizing of a Battery Electric Vehicle Powertrain for Optimal Cooperative Driving

Current advances in connected and automated mobility claim to change driving scenarios worldwide. Nevertheless, the impact of automated mobility on the design of vehicle powertrains still need exhaustive assessment. In this article, a design methodology is proposed for battery electric vehicle (BEV) powertrains that integrates the consideration of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) connected driving. Particularly, each analyzed design solution is evaluated in standard drive cycles both as normal human-operated vehicle and as following car in automated V2V driving. The overall battery energy consumption for the latter case is evaluated by solving an optimization problem to determine off-line the most suitable vehicle speed trajectory. Remaining design requirements include vehicle maximum speed, acceleration capability, and gradeability. Obtained results aim at quantifying the amount of energy savings for V2V automated driving depending on the considered mission and BEV powertrain design. Moreover, remarkable changes in the ranking of optimal BEV design solutions are observed based on the specific percentage of the vehicle lifetime traveled as automated following car in the off-line optimized V2V scenario. This work thus represents one of the initial steps to assess the impact of connected and automated driving on the optimal BEV powertrain design solutions.