abstract
- © 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Electric vehicles (EVs) offer the potential for energy-efficient transportation. To increase consumer acceptance, improved driving range and fault-tolerant traction represent two important challenges. This paper proposes a powertrain architecture that can provide fault-tolerant traction and increase the driving range for EV. In the proposed system, the traction power of two motors is combined through a planetary gear train (PGT). The propulsion system can operate with only one motor or with any combination of speeds in the two motors. The performance of the proposed powertrain architecture is analysed through simulations. Two different configurations are compared with conventional electric powertrain designs. The simulations account for different types of driving cycles and electric motor efficiency maps. Results indicate that the proposed powertrain architecture produces improvements in overall efficiency and driving range.