Energy Consumption Optimization for an Electric Delivery Vehicle

For nearly two centuries, electric drives have been used in transportation. Nevertheless, they were not always favored by designers. The century-long dominance of heat engines led to the disregard of numerous challenges associated with the operation of electric drive systems. One of these issues is the optimization of energy consumption by an electric vehicle. This publication proposes an electronic Energy Consumption Optimizer (ECO) that predictively uses information about the shape of the route and speed limits on its individual sections to control the motor speed and gear changes in the gearbox. This work presents the structure of the optimizer system and the developed control algorithms. Additionally, electric motor excitation control was used, which may have contributed to reducing the power and weight of the electric drive motor. Simulation studies carried out using WLTP test cycles and cycles from real road routes showed the potential to decrease energy consumption for vehicle movement by approximately 10%.