Survey of Electric Traction Drives for Present and Future Hybrid and Fuel Cell Passenger Cars

Dieter Gerling Institute for Electrical Drives, University of Federal Defense Munich Neubiberg, Germany [email protected] www.unibw.de/EAA

Summary In this paper, a survey concerning electric traction drives for passenger cars is given. Electric traction drives presently available on the market are analyzed and future developments are described. Two main classes of such drives are discussed: centre drives (like presently known from hybrid cars) and wheel-hub drives (which are still in the research and development phase). For the centre drives, two examples are given that differ, inter alia, in their power capability. They are used for full and mild hybrid vehicles, respectively. For wheel-hub drives, two different concepts are regarded: High-speed drive with gear-box and low-speed direct drive. The advantages and disadvantages of both concepts are shown. This survey partly is based on publications by different companies, partly it is based on own research activities.

Keywords Electric Traction Drives, Permanent Magnet Motor, Hybrid Car, Fuel Cell Car

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1.

Introduction

The present discussion in Europe on the CO2 emissions of passenger cars gives a new stimulus to electric traction drives. At least for city travel the fuel consumption and consequently the CO2 emissions can be reduced by applying a hybrid drive concept. The Toyota / Lexus company has a very sophisticated and well-known system on the market called hybrid synergy drive. This hybrid drive concept is applied to the Toyota Prius, as well as to different Lexus cars. The only car presently commercially available with two electrically driven axes is the SUV Lexus RX400h, which has been purchased as a research vehicle at the Institute for Electrical Drives (EAA) at the University of Federal Defense Munich, Germany (see fig. 1).

Fig. 1: Lexus RX400h research vehicle at the Institute for Electrical Drives [1]. A second hybrid drive concept being in series production is the Honda Civic IMA system. This system can be called a mild hybrid system, as the available electric power is much less against the Toyota / Lexus systems. Nearly all automotive companies have announced hybrid vehicles within the next few years. Even in the luxury and high-power car segment such announcements can be found, resulting from the fact that emissions reduction in this segment is both, a challenging task and getting broad public attention. The electric traction drives presently available on the market are realized as centre drives under the hood of the vehicle. The different specialities will be outlined in the next chapter. In addition, many companies are researching wheel-hub drives, which can be classified into high-speed drives with gear-box and direct drives. A survey of these possibilities will be given in chapter 3.

2.
2.1

Centre Drives
Example Toyota / Lexus

That hybrid car system best known to the public undoubtfully is the Toyota / Lexus system. The system set-up can be seen in fig. 2, which is taken from the Lexus homepage.

Lexus Hybrid Synergy Drive: 1 generator / front electric motor 2 power electronics (inverter) 3 V6 combustion engine 4 battery 5 rear electric motor

Fig. 2: System set-up of the Lexus RX400h hybrid car [2].

The electric motors used for this application (123kW at the front axis and additional 50kW at the rear axis) are permanent magnet motors with buried magnets like (principally) shown in fig. 3. The magnets are located like a V-shape inside the rotor iron. The main advantage of such a motor design is that the torque is composed of two parts, one part coming from the permanent magnets and the other part coming from the reluctance effect. Because of this, this kind of motor is very well qualified for a large field weakening range of operation (which means that a large operating region with constant power is possible). Therefore, this kind of motor is well adapted to the needs of a passenger car.

Fig. 3: Permanent magnet machine with buried magnets in V-shape.

2.2

Example Honda

A second hybrid system presently commercially available on the market is the Honda Civic IMA system, see the following fig. 4. This system is designed for a power of about 15kW.

Fig. 4: Honda Civic IMA system, electric motor shown in the front [3]. The electric motor comprises permanent magnets in the rotor like in the machines of Toyota / Lexus, but the machine design is quite different. The stator contains several coils, each coil is wound around a single tooth, see fig 5. The rotor is composed of straight magnets, which are geometrically buried inside the iron, but magnetically this construction is comparable to surface mounted magnets, as hardly any reluctance torque can be generated. The rotor parts are shown in fig. 6.
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Fig. 5: Stator parts of the electric machine of the Honda Civic IMA.

Fig. 6: Rotor parts of the electric machine of the Honda Civic IMA. The electric drives for the Toyota / Lexus hybrid cars and the Honda hybrid car are energized from a NiMH battery inside the car.

3. 3.1

Wheel-Hub Drives High-Speed Drives with Gear-Box

There are several announcements of different companies concerning electric wheel-hub drives for passenger cars. Most of these companies are either tire companies or car companies. Most announcements deal with high-speed drives comprising an additional gear-box inside the wheel-hub. Some example companies are Michelin, Toyota (e.g. the Fine X model with four times 20kW electric motors) and the Eliica research car from the Keio University in Japan (see fig. 7, eight times 60kW electric motors). The main advantage of wheel-hub drives is, that there is more space left under the hood for batteries or hydrogen storage tanks for hybrid or fuel cell cars, respectively, to enhance the driving range of such vehicles.

Fig. 7: Eliica research car from the Keio University in Japan [4].
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A passenger car that uses two different kinds of electric drives is the Honda FCX, which is announced as a fuel cell car going into (small) series production in very near future. This car contains a centre drive (80kW) for the front wheels and two wheel-hub drives, one for each rear wheel (two times 25kW).

Fig. 8: Honda FCX [5]. The Toyota Fine X and the Honda FCX are both fuel cell cars (Toyota Fine X with 80kW fuel cell stack, Honda FCX with 100kW fuel cell stack). The Eliica research car is a purely battery driven electric car.

3.2

Low-Speed Direct Drives

Even direct drives are announced from several companies, e.g. Bridgestone, Siemens VDO (see fig. 10) and Mitsubishi (see fig.11).

(1) wheel rim (2) electric wheel-hub motor (3) electronic wedge brake (4) active damping (5) electronic steering

Fig. 9: Siemens VDO eCorner system [6]

Fig. 10: Mitsubishi Lancer MIEV [7].

3.3

System Aspects

Analyzing typical mid-size passenger cars, one can conclude that at the wheels about 45kW power and about 1800Nm torque at low speed is sufficient, see the following fig. 11.

1. gear 2. gear 3. gear 6. gear 45 kW

torque in Nm

speed in min-1
Fig. 11: Torque-speed-characteristic at the wheels of a typical mid-size passenger car [8]. Comparing both alternatives for wheel-hub drives (high-speed drive with additional gear-box and lowspeed direct drive) shows the following characteristics: high-speed drive with additional gear-box o high-speed and low-torque electric motor leads to a small motor and therefore a small motor weight o the additionally required coupling and gear-box implicates additional losses and weight o in total it is a complex mechanical construction low-speed direct drive o low-speed and high-torque electric motor means a high motor weight o the construction is less complex than for the first alternative o the direct drive may be integrated into the wheel-hub for both alternatives o the temperature is critical because of the unavoidable mechanical brake The unsprung mass is critical for the driving comfort and safety of automobiles. As both alternatives for wheel-hub drives increase this unsprung mass, it can be only decided on the basis of detailed designs, which alternative is advantageous. Therefore, at the Institute of Electrical Drives of the University of Federal Defense Munich such designs have been elaborated. On the basis of detailed electric machine designs (computed using the FEM-software ANSYS 2D) and, for the high-speed drive, with an additional weight of

0.05

kg for gear-box, coupling, and respective housing it turned Nm

out that the low-speed direct drive is advantegeous: it requires less overall weight for the same mechanical power at the wheels. Nevertheless, there is still much to do: Beside the electromagnetic and thermal optimization of such wheel-hub drives (including electric machine, power electronics, and control), even the mechanical
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construction (including integration, mass reduction, and vehicle dynamics) is a major research and development topic.

4.

Conclusions

Electric traction drives for hybrid and fuel cell passenger cars can be divided into two major classes: centre drives and wheel-hub drives. The centre drive is already commercially available, e.g. as full hybrid (Toyota / Lexus) or mild hybrid (Honda). Most of the other car manufacturers have announced similar hybrid systems (all equipped with centre drives). There are many companies researching wheel-hub drives, but up to now no such drive can be purchased in a series production car. The main driving force to research wheel-hub drives is, that there is more space left under the hood for batteries (hybrid cars) or hydrogen storage tanks (fuel cell cars) to enhance the driving range of such vehicles. Own investigations led to the conclusion that the low-speed direct drive most probably is advantegeous concerning the additional unsprung mass [8]. Nevertheless, much research and development effort still is needed to make such a system ready for the road.

References [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] http://www.unibw.de/EAA/ http://www.lexus.de/ http://world.honda.com/CIVICHYBRID/ http://www.eliica.com/ http://auto-presse.de/concept-news.php?action=view&newsid=10059 http://www.siemensvdo.de/press/releases/chassisandcarbody/2006/sv-200608-001-d.htm http://www.hybrid-autos.info/Mitsubishi_Lancer_MIEV_2005.html Dajaku, G.; Lange, B.; Gerling, D.: Electric Traction for Automobiles - Comparison of Different Wheel-Hub Drives, International Electric Vehicle Symposium (EVS 23), Anaheim, CA, USA, December 2-5, 2007 (paper accepted)

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