INVITED
PAPER
Hybrid Electric Vehicles:
Architecture and Motor Drives
Heavy hybrid vehicles use their small internal combustion engine in series with
an electric drive; hybrid passenger cars use parallel and series-parallel drives.
By Mehrdad Ehsani, Fellow IEEE, Yimin Gao, and John M. Miller, Fellow IEEE
ABSTRACT | Electric traction is one of the most promising
technologies that can lead to significant improvements in
vehicle performance, energy utilization efficiency, and pollut-
ing emissions. Among several technologies, hybrid electric
vehicle (HEV) traction is the most promising technology that
has the advantages of high performance, high fuel efficiency,
low emissions, and long operating range. Moreover, the
technologies of all the component hardware are technically
and markedly available. At present, almost all the major
automotive manufacturers are developing hybrid electric
vehicles, and some of them have marketed their productions,
such as Toyota and Honda.
This paper reviews the present technologies of HEVs in the
range of drivetrain configuration, electric motor drives, and
energy storages.
KEYWORDS | Drivetrain architecture; energy storage; HEV;
motor drives
I. INTRODUCTION
A hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) uses two power sources to
power the vehicle. At present, one power source is internal
combustion (IC) engine (gasoline or diesel fueled) and the
other is chemical batteries plus an electric motor drive. In
HEVs, high peak power and quick power response of the
electric traction system results in high vehicle perfor-
mance such as quick acceleration. Small IC engine and
optimal operating points and regenerative braking result in
much better fuel economy and lower emissions than IC
engine-alone powered vehicles. High energy density of
petroleum fuel and convenient fueling systems result in
Manuscript received October 16, 2006; revised December 1, 2006.
M. Ehsani and Y. Gao are with the Power Electronics, Motor Drives and Advanced
Vehicle Systems Program, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas
A&M University, College Station, TX 77843 USA (e-mail: Ehsani@ece.tamu.edu).
J. M. Miller is with Maxwell Technologies, Inc., Advanced Transportation Applications,
San Diego, CA 92123 USA.
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/JPROC.2007.892492
0018-9219/$25.00 Ó 2007 IEEE
long operating range and easy refueling. All these
advantages make HEVs the most promising alternatives
for the next generation vehicles.
However, due to the dual power sources, there are
several drivetrain configurations and different control
strategies to control the power sources. These different
configurations and control strategies result in different
vehicle performance and operation characteristics. This
paper mainly reviews the configurations of HEVs and their
operating characteristics, as well as the state of the art of
present components, mostly motor drives and energy
storages.
II. ARCHITECTURE OF HEV
DRI VE T R AI N S
1) Concept of Hybrid Drivetrain: Fig. 1 shows the concept
of a hybrid drivetrain and possible energy flow route.
There are many available patterns of combining the power
flows to meet load requirement as described in the
following [1], [22]:
1) powertrain 1 alone delivers power to load;
2) powertrain 2 alone delivers power to the load;
3) both powertrain 1 and 2 deliver power to load at
the same time;
4) powertrain 2 obtains power from load (regener-
ative braking);
5) powertrain 2 obtains power from powertrain 1;
6) powertrain 2 obtains power from powertrain 1 and
load at the same time;
7) powertrain 1 delivers power to load and to
powertrain 2 at the same time;
8) powertrain 1 delivers power to powertrain 2, and
powertrain 2 delivers power to load;
9) powertrain 1 delivers power to load, and load
delivers power to powertrain 2.
Load power of a vehicle varies randomly in real
operation due to frequently accelerating, decelerating,
and climbing up and down grades, as shown in Fig. 2.
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Ehsani et al.: Hybrid Electric Vehicles: Architecture and Motor Drives

by the electric traction system (traction motor and

chemical batteries) to meet the peak power demand and
recovering the braking power.
This hybrid drivetrain concept can be implemented by
different architectures (configurations) as follows.

2) Series Hybrid Drivetrain: The series hybrid drivetrain

was developed by adding a small IC engine/generator to
the battery powered pure electric vehicle (EV) in order to
make up the energy shortage of the batteries, as shown in
Fig. 3. The prominent advantages of series hybrid
drivetrains are: 1) mechanical decoupling between the
IC engine and the driven wheels allows the IC engine
operating at its very narrow optimal region as shown in
Fig. 3; 2) single torque source (electric motor) to the
driven wheels simplifies the speed control (similar as
throttle control by accelerator pedal); 3) nearly ideal
Fig. 1. Conceptual illustration of hybrid drivetrain.
torque-speed characteristic of electric motor [1], [3]
makes multigear transmission unnecessary; and 4) simple
structure and drivetrain control and easy packaging (the
engine/generator, batteries, and the traction motor are
Actually, the load power can be decomposed into two
connected by only electrical cables). However, a series
components: one is steady (average) power, which has a
hybrid drivetrain also bears some disadvantages such as:
constant value, and other is dynamic power, which has a
1) twice the energy form conversions (mechanical from
zero average. In hybrid vehicle strategy, one powertrain,
engine to electric through generator and then to me-
which favors steady-state operation, such as an IC engine
chanical again through traction motor) cause more energy
fuel cell, can be used to supply the average power. On the
losses; 2) two electric machines are needed (electric
other hand, other powertrains, such as an electric motor,
generator and traction motor); and 3) a big traction
can be used to supply the dynamic power. The total energy
motor since it is the only torque source of the driven
output from the dynamic powertrain will be zero in a
wheels.
whole driving cycle. This implies that the energy source of
Taking advantage of its simple structure, simple
the dynamic powertrain does not lose energy capacity at
control, and easy packaging, the series hybrid drivetrain
the end of the driving cycle. It functions only as a power
is usually used in heavy vehicles, such as heavy commercial
damper [2].
vehicles, military vehicles, buses, and even locomotives.
Generally, the steady-state load power is provided by an
The major reason is that large vehicles have enough space
IC engine or fuel cell. Due to the steady-state operating
for the bulky engine/generator system. The hybrid electric
characteristic, its operating point can be designed and
city buses usually use this configuration, such as manu-
controlled in the optimal region to obtain highest
factured by Ebus, Electric Vehicles International, ISE
operating efficiency. The dynamic load power is provided
ResearchVThunder-Volt, etc.

Fig. 2. Load power is decomposed into steady and

dynamic components. Fig. 3. Series hybrid electric drivetrain.

720 Proceedings of the IEEE | Vol. 95, No. 4, April 2007

 Ehsani et al.: Hybrid Electric Vehicles: Architecture and Motor Drives
Fig. 4. Parallel hybrid electric drivetrain.
3) Parallel Hybrid Drivetrain: In a parallel hybrid
drivetrain, as shown in Fig. 4, the engine and electric
motor can directly supply their torque to the driven wheels
through a mechanical coupling. This mechanical coupling
may simply be a gearbox, pulley-belt unit or sprocket-chain
unit, even a single axle, as shown in Fig. 5.
Fig. 5. Commonly used mechanical torque coupling devices.
The major advantages of the parallel hybrid drivetrain
are: 1) both engine and electric motor directly supply
torques to the driven wheels and no energy form con-
version occurs, thus energy loss is less and 2) compactness
due to no need of the generator and smaller traction
motor. One major disadvantage of parallel hybrid drive-
trains are the mechanical coupling between the engine and
the driven wheels, thus the engine operating points cannot
be fixed in a narrow speed region. Another disadvantage is
the complex structure and control.
Due to its compact characteristics, parallel configura-
tion is used by small vehicles. Most passenger cars employ
this configuration, such as the Honda Insight, Honda
Civic, Ford Escape, etc.
4) Series–Parallel Hybrid Drivetrain: Fig. 6 shows a
typical configuration of the series–parallel drivetrain by
using a planetary gear unit to decouple the engine speed
from the wheel speed [1], [20], [21]. The planetary gear
unit and the speed–torque relationship are shown in Fig. 7.
At a given vehicle speed ð!2 Þ, the generator/motor speed
ð!1 Þ can be adjusted to adjust the engine speed ð!3 Þ. Thus
the engine, planetary gear unit, and the generator/motor
constitute the series power flow route. When the
generator/motor speed is negative (opposite direction
versus the torque), the generator operates in generating
mode. The engine power is split into two parts; one part is
transferred to the drivetrain and the other to the gener-
ator. When the generator speed is positive, the generator/
motor operates in motoring mode, adding power to the
driven wheels. In these ways, the engine speed can be
adjusted to its optimal region by controlling the generator/
motor speed. The function of the generator/motor can be
Fig. 6. Series–parallel hybrid drivetrain by using a planetary gear unit.
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Ehsani et al.: Hybrid Electric Vehicles: Architecture and Motor Drives
Fig. 7. Planetary gear unit.
removed from the drivetrain by locking the stator and
rotor of the generator/motor together and de-energizing it.
In this way, the planetary gear unit becomes a simple
gearbox with a fixed gear ratio. Another power (torque)
source is the traction motor, which directly adds torque to
the drive wheels.
The series–parallel configuration combines the advan-
tages of series and parallel drivetrains. However, it also
needs an additional electric machine and a planetary unit,
which makes the drivetrain somewhat complicated.
Another possible alternative to the planetary gear unit is
a floating-stator electric machine (it is called Transmotor),
as shown in Fig. 8. In this configuration, the stator is
connected to the engine and the rotor is connected to the
drivetrain wheel through gears. The motor speed/relative
speed between the stator and rotor can be controlled to
adjust the engine speed at any given vehicle speed. This
Fig. 8. Series–parallel hybrid drivetrain with transmotor.
722 Proceedings of the IEEE | Vol. 95, No. 4, April 2007
drivetrain has similar operating characteristics as those of
the drivetrain shown in Fig. 6 but is less complex.
The well-known Toyota Prius employed this configu-
ration as shown in Fig. 6.
I II . ELECTRIC MOTOR DRIVES
1) Ideal Torque-Speed Profile for Traction: Electric motor
drives play the most important role in HEVs. As mentioned
previously, the electric motor drive is the only torque
source in a series hybrid vehicle. In parallel and series–
parallel hybrid vehicles, the electric motor is the torque
source that provides the peak torque (power) to meet the
vehicle performance requirement, such as, acceleration.
Thus, the development of compact, lightweight, high
efficiency, and proper torque-speed profile becomes
crucial.
The ideal torque (power)-speed profile for traction
application is the constant power in all the speed ranges
[4]. The constant power profile can maximize the vehicle
acceleration performance at given power rating or
minimize the power rating at given vehicle acceleration
performance [6]. In an engine (gasoline or diesel)-alone
powered vehicle, a multigear transmission is used to
modify the engine torque-speed profile to make the
tractive effort-speed profile on a driven wheel close to
this ideal profile. However, a well-controlled electric
motor drive has the torque-speed profile close to the ideal
one as shown in Fig. 9 [1], [5].
The torque-speed profile of a well-controlled electric
motor drive includes two distinguishable segments:
constant torque and constant power. The corner speed is
usually called base speed. At a given power rating and
Fig. 9. Ideal torque-speed profile required and that a well-controlled
motor can produce.
 Ehsani et al.: Hybrid Electric Vehicles: Architecture and Motor Drives

Table 1 Typical Torque Density Values for Different Motor Types

However, the fixed flux magnets limit its extended speed

range. The induction machine and switched reluctance
Fig. 10. Tractive effort and power versus vehicle speed with machine have similar torque density. More details of the
different speed ratio x. operation characteristics of these three machines are
described as follows.

A. Permanent Magnet (PM) Motor Drives

maximum speed, the lower base speed results in a larger As mentioned above, since the magnetic field is excited
maximum torque. A term, speed ratio, is defined as the by high-energy PMs, the overall weight and volume can be
ratio of the maximum speed to the base speed. significantly reduced for given output torque, resulting in
In vehicle drivetrain design, one of the most important higher torque density. Because of the absence of rotor
efforts is to reduce the power rating (volume and weight) winding and rotor copper losses, their efficiency is
of the drivetrain with a given vehicle performance. Fig. 10 inherently higher than that of induction motors. The
shows the required motor power ratings with different brushless dc motor and interior permanent magnet motor
motor speed ratios, which produce the same vehicle are two typical motor drives for HEV applications.
acceleration performance [5]. It clearly shows that a motor However, PM motors inherently have short constant
drive with a long constant power range is preferred. power range due to its rather limited field weakening
capability, resulting from the presence of the PM field,
2) Candidates of Electric Motor Drives for Traction: An which can only be weakened through production of a
electric propulsion system consists of three main parts: an stator field component, which opposes the rotor magnetic
electric motor, a power electronics converter, and its field. Typical characteristics of the BLDC motor are
controller. Traditionally, dc motor drives have the proper shown in Fig. 11. The speed ratio x is usually less than
characteristics for traction application and were popularly two [7].
used a couple decodes ago. However, dc motor drives have
bulky construction, low efficiency, the need of mainte-
nance, and low reliability, mainly due to the presence of
the mechanical commutator (brush). With the coming era
of power electronics and digital microprocessor control
technology, other advanced motor drives are mature to
replace the dc motor drive in traction applications. At
present, permanent magnet brushless dc (BLDC) motors,
induction motors (IM), and switched reluctance motors
(SRM) are considered to be the most likely candidates for
the vehicle propulsion application.
For traction application, the torque density is the most
important criterion of the electric motors, which reflects
the volume and weight of machines at given torque
demand. Table 1 lists the typical torque density values for
different motor types [6].
Table 1 shows that the PM machines enjoy the highest
torque density and therefore will potentially have the
lowest weight for given torque and power ratings. Fig. 11. Typical characteristics of PM BLDC motor.

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Ehsani et al.: Hybrid Electric Vehicles: Architecture and Motor Drives
Recently, the use of additional field windings to extend
the speed range of PM brushless dc motors has been
developed [8]. The key is to control the field current in
such a way that the air-gap field provided by PMs can be
weakened during high-speed constant-power operation.
Due to the presence of both PMs and the field windings,
these motors are so-called PM hybrid motors. The PM
hybrid motor can achieve a speed ratio of around four [8],
[9]. However, the PM hybrid motors have the drawback of
a relatively complex structure. The speed ratio is still not
enough to meet the vehicle performance requirement,
especially for off-road vehicles. Thus, a multigear trans-
mission is required.
A new concept of field reconstruction technology has
been developed recently at Texas A&M University. This
technology can effectively enhance the torque capacity,
reduce the torque ripple, and obtain long constant power
range for PM brushless dc motor and interior PM motor
drives.
B. Induction Motor (IM) Drive
Field orientation control (FOC) of an induction motor
can decouple its torque control from field control. This
allows the motor to behave in the same manner as a
separately excited dc motor. Extended speed range
operation with constant power beyond base speed is
accomplished by flux weakening. However, the presence
of breakdown torque limits its extended constant power
operation as shown in Fig. 12. At the critical speed !mc ,
the breakdown torque is reached. Any attempt to operate
the machine at the maximum current beyond this speed
will stall the machine. Generally, for a conventional
induction motor, !mc is around two times the synchronous
speed !ms .
Fig. 12. Speed-torque curve for variable frequency control of
induction motor.
724 Proceedings of the IEEE | Vol. 95, No. 4, April 2007
Nevertheless, a properly designed induction motor,
e.g., spindle motor, with FOC can achieve a field
weakened range of about three to five times its base speed
[10]. This approach, however, results in an increased
breakdown torque, thereby resulting in oversizing of the
motor. A special winding changeover technique of a field
orientation controlled induction motor is also reported
which demonstrates long field weakening operation [11].
This approach, however, requires winding tap changing
and contactors. A contactless control scheme for extending
the speed range of a four-pole induction motor was
presented in [12]. This scheme uses two inverters, each of
half the rated power rating, that, in theory, can extend the
constant power operating range to four times the base
speed, for a motor, that would otherwise be limited to two
times the base speed. It may be mentioned here that the
torque control in induction motor is achieved through
PWM control of the current. In order to retain the current
control capability in the extended speed constant power
range, the motor is required to enter the field weakening
range before reaching the base speed, so that it has
adequate voltage margin to control the current [13]. This
would, however, oversize the motor slightly. Current
regulation with a synchronous current regulator [14] may
be the preferred choice. It can regulate current with a
lower voltage margin. The availability of a long field
weakened range, obviously, makes the induction very
suitable for vehicle application.
C. Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM) Drive
Switched reluctance motor (SRM) is gaining interest as
a candidate of electric propulsion for electric vehicles and
HEVs because of its simple and rugged construction,
simple control, ability of extremely high speed operation,
and hazard-free operation. These prominent advantages
are more attractive for traction application than other
kinds of machines.
SRM can inherently operate with extremely long
constant power range. The serial design and simulation
results, performed in the SRM research group at Texas
A&M University, show that the speed ratio of both 6-4 and
8-6 SRMs can reach 6-8 as shown in Fig. 13 [15]. This long
constant power range makes the SRM highly favorable for
vehicle traction application.
The major disadvantage of SRM drive is the high torque
ripple and acoustic noise. However, through employing
advanced control and field reconstruction technology de-
veloped at Texas A&M University, the torque ripple and
acoustic noise can be effectively reduced to the acceptable
degree for vehicle application.
To reduce the motor size and weight for a given power
rating, high-speed operation is expected to reduce the
torque rating and, thus, the current rating. However, high-
speed operation may cause high mechanical losses due to
aerodynamics drag and viscosity losses. To reduce the me-
chanical losses, the shape of the rotor should be optimally
 Ehsani et al.: Hybrid Electric Vehicles: Architecture and Motor Drives
Table 2 Status of Chemical Battery Systems for EV
designed especially for SRM drive, where the rotor is
shaped like a gear, which causes high aerodynamic drag at
high speed.
IV. ENE RGY STORAGE
1) Chemical Batteries and Ultracapacitors: Energy storage
is another important component in a hybrid electric
drivetrain. It is required to have sufficient peak power and
energy capacity to support the operation of the vehicle. At
present, almost all the vehicles use chemical batteries as
their energy storage. Table 2 shows the status of battery
systems potentially available for EVs and HEVs [16].
It can be seen that although specific energies are high
in advanced batteries, the specific power does not have
any significant improvement. About 300 W/kg might be
the optimistic estimate. Recently, SAFT has reported their
Li-ion high-power and high-energy batteries with about
4000 and 600 W/kg, respectively. However, their prac-
ticality and cost reduction in the future need to be further
proven.
Ultracapacitor is another candidate as potential energy
storage for hybrid vehicles. The ultracapacitor is charac-
terized by high specific power, high efficiency, excellent
temperature adaptability, and long service life. However, it
has suffered from very limited specific energy. The
characteristics of a 42-V ultracapacitor pack specifically
designed for HEV and produced by Montena Company are
listed in Table 3 [18]. Maxwell Technologies [19] have
reportedly developed 2700-F ultracapacitors with 2.5-V
cell voltage, 2.55-kW/kg specific power, and 3.23-Wh/kg
specific energy, respectively. It is believed that the unit
power cost of the ultracapacitor is lower than that of
batteries. However, due to its low specific energy and
dependence of voltage on the state-of-charge, it is difficult
to use ultracapacitors alone as the energy storage on hybrid
vehicles. The most promising approach is to hybridize the
ultracapacitors with other energy storages, such as
batteries and flywheel, which will be discussed in the
following sections.
2) Hybrid Energy Storage: Compared to ultracapacitors,
the chemical has a much higher specific energy but much
less specific power. When chemical batteries or an
ultracapacitor alone are taken as the energy storage, heavy
weight will be unavoidable, because the former needs
large weight to meet the power requirement and the latter
needs weight to meet the energy requirement. However,
when both of them are properly combined, an energy
storage with high power and high energy can be obtained.
This energy storage is called hybrid energy storage, in
which the batteries supply the energy demand and the
ultracapacitors supply the power demand.
The most straightforward approach is to directly
connect ultracapacitors to batteries as shown in Fig. 14.
This configuration has the simplest structure and no
control unit is needed. The behavior of the ultracapacitors
Vol. 95, No. 4, April 2007 | Proceedings of the IEEE 725
Ehsani et al.: Hybrid Electric Vehicles: Architecture and Motor Drives
Table 3 Characteristic Data of a 42 V Ultracapacitor [18]
is more like a current filter, so that high battery peak
current is leveled, as shown in Fig. 15.
The leveled battery current by the presence of
ultracapacitors can result in many benefits to the batteries,
such as small battery pack, high operating efficiency, easy
thermal management, and longer battery life. The lesser
variation of terminal voltage can also release the burden of
the following power converter. With proper design of all
the components, this simply structured energy storage may
result in a high power, high energy, and high efficiency
energy storage system.
Clearly, in the passively connected battery/ultracapa-
citor system, the power flows between the battery pack and
Fig. 13. Speed-torque characteristic of SRM with four different
designs.
726 Proceedings of the IEEE | Vol. 95, No. 4, April 2007
ultracapacitor pack, and when the load cannot be
managed, consequently, the high-power characteristic of
the ultracapacitors can be fully used. Fig. 16 shows the
concept of an actively controlled battery/ultracapacitor
system. In this system, a power electronics based power
regulator is used to manage the power flow between the
battery back, ultracapacitor pack, and the load.
Basically, the power conditioning operation can be
divided into three different modes [23]: 1) ultracapacitor
peaking operation for high power demand (positive and
negative); 2) ultracapacitor charging from batteries; and
3) batteries-alone operation. These operation modes are
implemented by a central control unit. The central control
unit commands the power electronics, according to the
control strategy (control logic), and receives signals
through current and voltages sensors, as shown in
Fig. 14. Passively connected batteries/ultracapacitors system.
 Ehsani et al.: Hybrid Electric Vehicles: Architecture and Motor Drives

Fig. 15. Battery current leveled by passively connected

ultracapacitors.

Fig. 16. Conceptual illustration of actively controlled battery/

ultracapacitor system.

Fig. 11. The control objectives are: 1) to meet the power

requirement; 2) to keep the battery current in a preset
region; and 3) to keep the battery SOC in its middle region
(0.4 to 0.6 for example), in which the battery efficiencies
are usually optimized.
This system can potentially fully use the high power
property of the ultracapacitors, therefore resulting in a
small battery pack. The actively controlled battery current
can potentially lead to more efficient battery operation and
easier thermal management.
V. CONCLUSION
This paper systematically reviews the state of the art of
modern hybrid vehicle technologies, including architec-
tures, electric motor drives, and energy storage. For the
architectures, series, parallel, and series–parallel are the
most commonly used architectures. For the advantages
and disadvantages, series hybrid configuration is mostly
used in heavy vehicles, military vehicles, and buses. On the
other hand, parallel and series–parallel are mostly used in
small automobiles, such as passenger cars. Regarding to
the electric motor drives, a long constant power region can
significantly reduce the power rating of the electric system
and therefore reduce the total weight of the system. A
hybrid energy storage combining chemical batteries and
ultracapacitors will certainly be the most promising way to
meet the energy and power demands with a compact and
lightweight structure. h

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electronic CVT’s,[ in Proc. IEEE Int.
Symp. Industrial Electronics, ISIE’05,
Dubrovnik, Croatia, Jun. 20–23, 2005,
mini-track on automotive control,
MTAC.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Mehrdad Ehsani (Fellow, IEEE) has been at Texas
A&M University, College Station, Texas since 1981,
where he has been the Robert M. Kennedy Pro-
fessor of electrical engineering and Director of
Advanced Vehicle Systems Research Program since
2004. He is the author of over 300 publications in
specialty power systems, pulsed-power supplies,
high-voltage engineering, power electronics and
motor drives, and automotive power and pro-
pulsion systems. He is the Coauthor of several
books on power electronics, motor drives, vehicle power and propulsion
systems, and a contributor to an IEEE Guide for Self-Commutated
Converters and many monographs. He is the author of over 20 U.S. and
EC patents. His current research work is in power electronics, motor
drives, hybrid electric vehicles, and vehicle power systems.
Dr. Ehsani has been a member of IEEE Power Electronics Society
AdCom, past Chairman of PELS Educational Affairs Committee, past
Chairman of IEEE-IAS Industrial Power Converter Committee and
Founding Chairman of the IEEE Myron Zucker Student-Faculty Grant
program. He was the General Chair of IEEE Power Electronics Specialist
Conference for 1990. He is an IEEE Industrial Electronics Society and
Vehicular Technology Society Distinguished Speaker and IEEE Industry
Applications Society past Distinguished Lecturer. He has been the
Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions of IES and IEEE VEHICLE TECHNOLOGY
SYSTEMS. He is the founder of IEEE Power and Propulsion Conference of
Vehicular Technology and Power Electronics Societies and the Chairman
of its Steering Committee. He was elected to the Board of Governors of
IEEE-VTS in 2003. He also serves on the IEEE Power Electronics Society
Administrative Committee. In 2005, he was elected Fellow of the Society
of Automotive Engineers (SAE). He is also a registered professional
engineer in the State of Texas. He has been the recipient of the Prize
Paper Awards in Static Power Converters and motor drives at the IEEE-
Industry Applications Society 1985, 1987, and 1992 Annual Meetings. In
1992, he was named the Halliburton Professor in the College of
Engineering at Texas A&M. In 1994, he was also named the Dresser
Industries Professor at the same college. In 2001, he was named the Dow
Chemical Faculty Fellow of the College of Engineering at Texas A&M
University. In 2001, he also received the James R. Evans Avant Garde
Award from IEEE Vehicular Technology Society. He is the recipient of
IEEE Field Award in Undergraduate Teaching in 2003.
John M. Miller (Fellow, IEEE) received the BSEE
degree from the University of Arkansas, Fayette-
ville, in 1976, the MSEE degree from Southern
Methodist University, Dallas, TX, in 1979, and the
Ph.D. degree from Michigan State University, East
Lansing, in 1983, all in electrical engineering.
In 2006, he joined Maxwell Technologies as
Vice President of advanced transportation appli-
cations. In this capacity, he supports strategic
marketing and product applications through sys-
tems level analysis, modeling, simulation, and customer collaboration in
emerging technical areas. He brings Maxwell Technologies a systems
perspective and works closely with the engineering and business sides of
the company. He has authored over 120 publications on automotive
electrical and electronic systems, utility power systems and transporta-
tion systems and holds 51 U.S. patents. He is author of the book
Propulsion Systems for Hybrid Vehicles (IEE Press Power & Energy Series
PO045, London, U.K., 2003) and Coauthor of two additional books:
Handbook of Automotive Power Electronics and Motor Drives, (Marcel
Dekker, 2004) and Vehicular Electric Power Systems: Land, Sea, Air, and
Space Vehicles, (Marcel Dekker, December 2003). He also developed the
IEEE Expert Now Interactive Course: Exploring the Electronic Continu-
ously Variable Transmission.
Dr. Miller is a registered and practicing Professional Engineer in
Michigan since 1980 and an IEEE Power Electronics Society Distinguished
Lecturer and Editor-in-Chief of the Power Electronics Society newsletter.

Yimin Gao received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D.

degrees in automotive engineering in 1982, 1986,
and 1991 respectively, all from Jilin University of
Technology, China. He specialized in the develop-
ment, design and manufacturing of automobiles.
From 1991 to 1995, he was an Associate
Professor and Automotive Design Engineer in the
Automotive Engineering College, Jilin University
of Technology. He joined the Advanced Vehicle
Systems Research Program at Texas A&M Univer-
sity, College Station, in 1995. Since then, he has been working in this
program as a Research Associate on the research and development of
electric and hybrid electric vehicles. His research interests include the
fundamentals, architecture, control, modeling, and systematic design of
electric and hybrid electric vehicles.

728 Proceedings of the IEEE | Vol. 95, No. 4, April 2007