Simulation investigation of the performance and cost of pure electric vehicle power train with Ultracapacitor

As their high specific power and long cycle life over conventional batteries, Ultracapacitors have been thought as a good alternative/supplement for energy storage for city buses which operate considerable fast acceleration, deceleration and stop. In the current study, the powertrain system for a PEV (Pure Electric Vehicle) bus with batteries and ultra-capacitors for energy storage were developed. While high vehicle performance and low systemic cost were considered as main factors for the system configuration, different designs for the combination between batteries and ultra-capacitors were proposed and investigated. Based on optimized control strategies for energy management with and without stop-charging, the system performance was numerically simulated with Matlab/Simulink and ADVISOR under the UK bus driving cycle. The results show the involvement of Ultracapacitors can improve the performance of the vehicle and also reduce the cost. When stop-charging is employed, the battery pack can be completely removed and the Ultracapacitor can provide all the electric energy required by the bus.