Model of Hybrid Electric Vehicle with Two Energy Sources

Abstract

The paper proposes a Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) design based on the installation of a fuel cell (FC) module in the existing Daewoo Tico electric vehicle to increase its range in urban areas. Installing an FC module supplied by a 2 kg hydrogen tank would not significantly increase the mass of the electric vehicle, and the charging time of the hydrogen tank is lower than the battery charging time. For design analysis, a model was created in the MATLAB/Simulink software package. The model simulates vehicle range at different HEV speeds for Absorbent Glass Mat (AGM) and Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) power sources. The greatest anticipated benefit derived from the model analysis relates to velocities ranging from 20 km/h to 30 km/h, although the optimal HEV velocity in an urban area is in the range of 30 km/h to 40 km/h. The results indicate that this conversion of Electric Vehicle (EV) to HEV would bring a benefit of 87.4% in terms of vehicle range in urban areas. Therefore, the result of the conversion in this case is a vehicle with sub-optimal characteristics, which are nevertheless very close to optimal.