Vehicle Design

The design and optimisation of a permanent magnet-assisted synchronous reluctance (PMaSynR) traction machine is described to improve its energy efficiency over a selection of driving cycles, when installed on a four-wheel-drive electrically powered vehicle for urban use, with two on-board powertrains. The driving cycle-based optimisation is defined with the objective of minimising motor energy loss under strict size constraints, while maintaining the peak torque and restricting the torque ripple. The key design parameters that exert the most significant influence on the selected performance indicators are identified through a parametric sensitivity analysis. The optimisation brings a motor design that is characterised by an energy loss reduction of 8.2% over the WLTP Class 2 driving cycle and 11.7% over the NEDC and Artemis Urban driving cycles, at the price of a 4.7% peak torque reduction with respect to the baseline machine. Additional analysis, implemented outside the optimisation framework, revealed that different coil turn adjustments would reduce the energy loss along the considered driving cycles. However, under realistic size constraints, the optimal design solutions are the same.

Multi-Moby project, funded under H2020 n° 101006953, aims at developing technology for safe, efficient and affordable urban electric vehicles. The objective of the paper is to show the results achieved in relation to structural integrity and occupant protection in the first year of the project. In a first stage simulation tools have been used to optimise the vehicle structure crashworthiness at different crash configuration based on smart use of High Strength Steels focused to simplified and affordable manufacturing processes. Once the structural behaviour met requirements and expectations, the restraint system has been developed. After design optimisation, three vehicles have been prototyped to perform three crash tests, two of them frontal, corresponding to Regulation 137 and Regulation 94, and one lateral, corresponding to Regulation 95.

Multi-Moby is an ambitious project aiming at quickly finalising the results of a cluster of ongoing and past European projects, addressing the development of technologies for safe, efficient and affordable urban electric vehicles (EVs). This paper presents the developments that have been implemented in the first half of Multi-Moby, which deals with low-cost M1 and N1 EVs, to be manufactured via low-investment and lean processes and plants. The Multi-Moby EVs have excellent passive safety characteristics, enhanced by pre-emptive active safety controllers. The vehicles can be coupled with efficient 100 V or 48 V powertrains. Fast charging is enabled by the integrated design of hybrid supercapacitor-battery cells and wall box chargers. The project will also consider low-cost automated driving solutions, with focus on gimbal-based camera systems for environmental sensing and detection.