Performance Investigation of Lightweight Car Assisted by Solar Panels

This article presents the design and simulation of electric equipment for a hybrid solar vehicle. The new drive train of this vehicle is a parallel hybrid system. The vehicle is driven mainly by an internal combustion engine with 49.35 kW maximal power, and an electric motor operates for energy assistance. This assistance is provided to the rear axle by a single electric motor with 7.22 kW of nominal power. Lithium-ion batteries (12 units), connected in series, run the electric motor. The batteries are charged by three 300 W photovoltaic modules installed on the hood and roof of the car. Each kinetic chain component is modeled and simulated using the MATLAB Simulink environment. The entire system operation is examined under different load conditions. For this hybrid system, fuel consumption can be reduced from 6.74 kg/h to 5.56 kg/h when the electric motor works at 100% of its power. The net benefit of the system reaches 1.18 kg/h as fuel reduction at high power and torque levels.