EV Conversion Performance Analysis and Sizing of

Traction Motor and Battery from Driving Cycles

C. Duangtongsuk1* , T. Thianthamthita1* , R. Pupadubsin2 , N. Chayopitak2 , and W. Kongprawechnon1

1
School of Information, Computer, and Communication technology, SIIT, Thammasat University
2
National Electronics and Computer Technology Center, Bangkok, Thailand
*
Corresponding authors: chayathornsiit27@gmail.com, peterter2542@gmail.com

Abstract—Although the modern forms of personal and mass

transportation are expected to be toward more electric vehicles
(EVs), the adoption rate of new EVs in the developing countries
might be much slower than anticipated due to higher cost
and lack of supporting infrastructures. This paper explores an
alternative approach to promote wider adoption of large EVs
in developing country by converting or retrofitting old Internal
Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles such as buses and trams
into EVs. The key designing procedures for retrofitting EVs are
investigated based on actual data of the driving cycles of the
vehicles under consideration, which has the advantages of cost
saving and performance improvement for low speed, local mass
transit vehicles. The proposed method can also be applied for
any EV conversion design with given driving cycle data.
Index Terms—electric vehicle; driving cycle; battery sizing;
traction motor.
I. I NTRODUCTION
The modern forms of personal and mass transportation
are expected to be toward more electric vehicles (EVs) with
the advantages of zero tailpipe pollution, reduced greenhouse
gases, better traction performance and lower maintenance cost
[1], [2]. However, the adoption rate of new EVs in developing
countries might be much slower than anticipated due to higher
cost and lack of supporting infrastructures [3]. In addition to
promoting more usage of lower cost EVs such as electric two-
wheelers or light EVs, another viable alternative approach to
promoting more usage of large EVs is to convert or retrofit
old Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles into EVs, i.e.
by replacing the original components such as ICEs and fuel
tanks with traction motors, batteries and new controllers. In
particular, such approach could be attractive and cost effective
solutions for low speed, mass transit vehicles operating in
closed area such as university campuses or local communities
Fig. 1 Tram service system
TABLE I Route and Operating Information
Parameters
Type of route Closed-Area
Vehicle Tram
Number of seats 29
Average distance traveled per cycle; Davg 5.6 km
Number of driving cycle per day; Ncycle 17
Total distance traveled per day; Dtotal 94.5 km
with lower investment cost of retrofitting, lower operating cost
and lower pollution of EVs [4], [5].
The key designing processes for retrofitting EVs [6] are
mostly resemble that of regular EVs, which include vehicle
performance analysis for sizing of traction motor and esti-
mation of energy assumption for optimizing battery selection
[7], [8]. Conventional design and optimization procedures are
usually based on rated performance, which are effectively
suitable for new vehicles. However, such practices may result
in good performance and higher cost vehicles, which could be
highly under utilized for low speed, local mass transit vehicles
such as electric mini buses or electric trams service system if
the actual driving cycles are not considered in the conventional
design process [9], [10].
 (a) (b)
Fig. 2 Closed-area routes (a) Route1, (b) Route2, (c) Route3, (d) Route4.
In this paper, the energy consumption is analyzed from the
driving cycles in relation to vehicle velocity, acceleration, and
highway gradient. Energy usage, vehicle scheduling, traction
motors, and battery capacity are then analyzed in order to
determine the electrification potential of existing bus routes
under consideration.
II. D RIVING C YCLE DATA
The operating data for the driving cycle analysis [11],
[12] was collected using GPS-based equipment from VBOX
(Model: VB20SL3) by Racelogic Ltd. The vehicles and routes
investigated in this study are tram service systems for public
transportation at a university, as illustrated in Fig. 1. Table I
shows the operating details of the tram service systems,
including the average distance per route, the total distance per
day, and the number of driving cycles per day.
The service routes examined in this research operated inside
the university, or “close-area.” The four paths of operation
are indicated in Fig. 2. Acquired data such as speed (km/h),
latitude, longitude, time (s), and brake trigger were applied to
calculate the driving cycle pattern of each service route.
III. E LECTRIC V EHICLE A RCHITECTURE
Fig. 3 illustrates the electric vehicle architecture. The
permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drives the
wheels’ traction power through torque transmission. Electrical
power is given to the PMSM through an inverter, which trans-
forms the battery’s DC voltage to AC voltage and breaks re-
sistance. The external DC charger and/or external AC charger,
as well as the onboard charger, provide power to the battery.
When calculating the electric bus’s energy consumption, it is
necessary to account for losses caused by components and
auxiliary loads such as electronic and electrical equipment [2].
(c) (d)
IV. E LECTRIC V EHICLE M ODELLING A ND D ESIGN
A. Vehicle Dynamic Modeling
The first stage in developing a model of bus performance is
to create an electric force model. This is the force imparted to
the ground through the bus’s drive wheels, driving it forward.
This force must be strong enough to overcome the road load
and propel the bus forward. On the route, automobiles will
be allowed to move. Various forces must be overcome by the
vehicle. For instance, inertia, gravity, rolling resistance, wind
resistance, and the angle of the driving surface. Fig. 4 depicts
the dynamic model of an electric bus.
To counteract these electric bus forces, the bus’s traction
motor power must be greater than the total resistance power
[3]. The details of all tractive force and resistance force will be
discussed in the next section, including energy consumption
and torque, which are calculated according to the driving
cycles.
B. Traction Energy Consumption Calculation
The traction energy consumption is determined using basic
vehicle dynamics theory [13]. Electric power is considered to
be equivalent to the power required to generate a tractive force
in this research, and the energy used by the main component,
auxiliary system, and regenerative brake is disregarded. The
following equation describes the tractive force:
F = Ra + Rr + Rcl + RI (1)
where F denotes tractive force (N), Ra denotes aerodynamic
resistance (N), Rr denotes rolling resistance (N), and Rcl
denotes grade resistance (N). Ra , Rr , and Rcl are determined
while a tram traveled at a constant speed:
RI = ma (2)
ρ
Ra = Cd Av 2 (3)
2
 Fig. 3 Electric Vehicle Architecture

TABLE II Characteristics of the Vehicle (Medium-Sized

Bus)
Parameters Value
Curb weight (kg) 9000
Vehicle frontal area (m2 ) 7.5
Rolling Resistance 0.015
Drag coefficient 0.7
Fig. 4 Forces on the vehicle Air Density (kg/m3 ) 1.14
Gravity Acceleration (m/s2 ) 9.8

Rr = fr mg cos θ (4)

Rcl = mg sin θ (5)

ρ conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) with an electric
F = Cd Av 2 + fr mg cos θ + mg sin θ + ma (6)
2 motor. The selection of a motor candidate is based on motor
where v is velocity (m/s2 ), Cd is coefficient of drag, ρ is air torque which is calculated from their driving cycle. The torque
3 3
density (kg/m ), A is frontal area of the vehicle (m ), fr is motor can describe by the following equation.
rolling resistance constant, g is gravity acceleration (g = 9.81 60
m/s2 ), m is a mass of vehicle (kg), and θ is the road grade RPMwheel = v · (8)
2wr π
(degree). Finally, the tractive force F is found in Equation (1) where RPMwheel is a rotating speed of bus wheel per minute
by combining Equation (2), Equation (3), Equation (4) and and wr is a radius of bus wheel (m).
Equation (5). To calculate energy consumption, the power for
RPMwheel
vehicle traveling at velocity (v) was required. Required power RPMmotor = (9)
Gr
could be determined from the relationship between F and v
where RPMmotor is a rotating speed of motor per minute and
in Equation (7).
Gr is gears ratio of the transmission system. The motor torque
P =F ·v (7)
can be calculated as
where P denotes the power (W). The traction energy con- P
Tmotor = 9.5488 · (10)
sumption is determined in this research utilizing the geometric RPMmotor
characteristics of a 9-meter EV bus prototype and the param-
The traction motor’s torque should be created and supplied
eters are listed in Table II.
to meet vehicle dynamics during the prescribed driving cycle,
C. Motor Sizing as well as short-term overload (peak) torque production for
Real driving cycles were used to calculate the required acceleration/climbing and efficient energy use over all route
motor torque in the practical condition that corresponds to ranges. The RMS torque (continuous torque) [14], which
the actual load and driving behavior when replacing the is connected to the allowed temperature limits, is the most
 TABLE III Parameters of Components and Auxiliary TABLE IV Results of Motor Torque, Speed Range, and
Energy Consumption per day for the driving cycles in each
Components Load (kW)
route
Pneumatic pump 2.2
Air condition 10 Tram1 Tram2 Tram3 Tram4
DC water cooling pump 0.06 Continuous torque 176 225 191 190
Steering pump and controller 1.5 (Nm)
Accessory load 0.5 Peak Torque 766 1922 1407 623
(Nm)
Max. Speed 2825 3337 3082 3130
important torque value as given in (RPM)
s Z Energy consumption 124 192 192 146
1 at full load (kWh)
TRMS = T2 (t) dt (11)
tp tp motor

where Tp is the time period of the entire driving cycle and
Tmotor (t) is the instantaneous torque.
D. EV Main Components and Auxiliary System Energy Con-
sumption Calculation
The primary components and auxiliary systems may have
a considerable influence on the total amount of energy used.
The parameters of the components and auxiliary systems are
listed in Table III for calculating energy usage.
The constant value of total load for the main components
and auxiliary system was 14.26 kW in this investigation.
The energy consumption of the EV main component and the
auxiliary system were determined using Equation (12).
Ttotal
Ec = Pc × (12)
3600
where Ec represents the energy used by the EV’s main
components and auxiliary system (kWh), Pc denotes the load
on the EV’s main components and auxiliary system (kW), and
Ttotal is the sample duration of the driving cycles (s).
E. Total Energy Consumption
The total energy consumption rate is calculated as the sum
of the traction energy consumption and the energy consump-
tion of the primary electric vehicle components and auxiliary
system divided by the distance traveled each cycle on each
route. The energy consumption rate (kWh/km) is given by
Ed + Ec
Etotal = (13)
D resulting driving cycles of the examined routes are shown in
where Etotal is the total energy used throughout the driving
cycle and by the EV’s primary components and auxiliary
system (kWh/km), Ed denotes the energy used during a
driving cycle (kWh), Ec denotes the energy consumed by the
EV’s primary components and auxiliary system (kWh), and D
is the distance traveled during a sample driving cycle (km).
F. Battery Sizing
The installed battery energy in watt-hours (Wh) is a crit-
ical statistic for electric cars due to their high installation
cost and inferior energy density when compared to gasoline.
The preceding section’s traction energy consumption rate and
minimum needed power were utilized as the primary factors
for designing the battery. The battery’s minimum necessary
capacity is determined by daily power use, charging method,
and feeder design. Equation was used to compute the operation
distance per day of the time spent approach as in Equation (14)
Dtotal = Ncycle × Davg (14)
where Dtotal is the total distance traveled per day (km), Ncycle
denotes the number of driving cycles per day (cycles), and
Davg denotes the average distance traveled per cycle (km).
For battery sizing, it can be assumed daily charge and utilized
the total energy consumption rate and daily operating distance
to determine the minimum necessary energy from battery size
per day for each route as Equation (15)
Erequired = Etotal × Dtotal (15)
where Erequired is the energy consumption needed for battery
sizing (kWh).
V. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION
The speed range of the close-area route is 0–40 km/h. The
Fig. 5 for route1. The average of the close-area is characterized
by close proximity to each other. The speed range is 15.01
km/h, 17.0 km/h, 16.5 km/h and 16 km/h for tram 1, tram
2, tram 3, tram 4, respectively. The torque profile of the
motor, which obtains from the driving cycle data, is shown in
Fig. 6. The peak torque and continuous torque of the required
 Fig. 5 Closed-area representative driving cycle of route1
Fig. 6 Motor torque profile of route1’s driving cycle
Fig. 7 Torque distribution profile of route1’s driving cycle
motor can determine by using the torque profile. The results
of the peak and continuous torque are shown in Table IV. The
required motor need to cover the peak torque at 1922 Nm,
continuous torque at 225 Nm, and rotating speed range over
3337 rpm.
Fig. 7 shows the torque distribution during operating ac-
cording to the driving cycle. The operating points for the
route1’s driving cycle are mostly located around 800 rpm to
1600 rpm at the torque region of 0-150 Nm. For this reason,
the candidate motor should have high efficiency in this speed
region. Fig. 8 illustrates the motor torque-speed characteristics
Fig. 8 Motor torque-speed characteristics and qualitative
overlay of premium efficiency zones for different motors [15]
and qualitative overlay of premium efficiency zones for dif-
ferent motors. It can be seen that the IPM (Interior Permanent
Magnet) motor is suitable for the required motor having a high
performance at low torque region and medium rotating speed.
For battery selection, the maximum energy consumption per
day is 192 kWh. The required battery capacity should cover the
maximum energy consumption per day as shown in Table IV.
Table V shows the design specification of the vehicle, the
chosen motor, and the chosen battery.
VI. C ONCLUSION
The performance analysis and the selection procedure of
traction motor and battery for EV conversion based on the real
driving cycles have been discussed. The dynamic model of the
vehicle is applied for the investigation and for the calculation
of the required electric motor torque and energy consumption
according to the driving pattern in the real conditions. The
type selection of the electric motor has a significant impact on
energy saving and enhancing the travel distance of the electric
vehicle. The torque distribution profile, which is based on the
driving behavior, is applied for choosing the suitable electric
motor. The battery is then selected by determining energy
usage during the operation of vehicle driving and auxiliary
load.
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