Evaluation of Transmission Types and Control Strategies for Electric Vehicles

This paper aims at providing a reference for a suitable selection of transmission types for electric vehicles according to the customer specifications. The choice is recommended by comparing the different transmission systems with the control strategies that exist for electric vehicle propulsion. The different parameters of the transmission system such as complexity, torque, efficiency, shift quality, mass and cost are taken into consideration during the comparative evaluation process. The optimization techniques executed on different platforms such as MATLAB, Dynamic Programming, Fuzzy Controllers and Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) Controllers are elaborated. A customer perception survey is also carried out to acquire clarity on customer's expectations. The survey revealed the customer's preference towards the performance and efficiency of a transmission system over other parameters. The present study exposed the salient features of all available transmission types with their control strategies. Whilst reduced design complexity and high torque favours the selection of single-speed transmission, continuously variable transmission endorses the best shift quality and higher efficiency.