Abstract
This paper documents the vehicle modeling and fuel economy simulation efforts for the Georgia Tech EcoCAR Mobility Challenge team during Year 1 of the current Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition (AVTC). The goal of the first year of the competition was to propose two possible hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) architectures based on a 2019 Chevrolet Blazer platform that could be built and refined throughout Years 2–4 of the competition. A Simulink vehicle model was used to compare a variety of HEV architectures with several different combinations of engines, batteries, and electric machines. An adaptive Equivalent Consumption Minimization Strategy was used to split torque between the internal combustion engine and two electric machines so that architectures with two electric machines could be modeled. The model was validating by comparing results from simulating a conventional Chevrolet Blazer with the 2.5L naturally aspirated engine to fuel economy results obtained by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In addition to developing a hybrid vehicle, the competition is focused on exploring Mobility as a Service (MaaS), which introduces some special considerations when choosing a hybrid vehicle architecture. The results of the Simulink model as well as requirements set by the MaaS market led the Georgia Tech EcoCAR team to pursue a dual electric machine P0P4 parallel through the road hybrid vehicle.