Maximizing Harvested Energy through Regenerative Braking Process in Dual-Motor All-Wheel Drive Electric Vehicles

This paper introduces a braking strategy for a dual-motor All-Wheel Drive (AWD) Electric Vehicle (EV) that maximizes energy extraction during braking. The braking strategy is based on real-time sensing of each motor controller's DC link current to achieve optimum brake allocation between friction and regenerative braking in both axles. The recaptured energy via regenerative braking and the net energy consumption are calculated for a typical dual-motor AWD EV using a test bench simulation setup in MATLAB/SIMULINK. Based on the results, blending of regenerative and friction braking is carried out in each axle independently such that the overall harvested energy during braking is maximized. Furthermore, the results are compared to other configurations of single-motor drive EVs. The comparison shows that the recaptured energy through the regenerative braking process is significantly increased in dualmotor AWD EVs, which delineates their capability in improving energy harvesting during braking.