MOOC electric cars: Technology

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this lecture on the sizing of the Electric Vehicle powertrain.
In this lecture, we will learn how to estimate the forces on the vehicle and the power that
needs be delivered by the powertrain to control the vehicle speed.

There are three learning objectives for this lecture. First, what are the forces acting on a
vehicle when it’s driving? Namely, the rolling resistance force, the aerodynamic drag force,
and the gradient force. Secondly, how to use the traction forces to control the vehicle speed?
And finally, How should the powertrain of the vehicle be sized?

Let us start by analysing the rolling resistance force. The rolling resistance force occurs due to
the friction between the tires and the driving surface. The rolling resistance force is zero at
standstill. When the vehicle starts moving, the rolling resistance force acts in the direction
opposite to the direction of motion and can be calculated by the rolling resistance coefficient
‘C_r’ multiplied by the normal force between the vehicle and the road. For a flat surface, the
normal force is the vehicle mass ‘m’ times the standard gravity ‘g’.

In case of a road with an inclination angle ‘thetha’, the normal force becomes the weight ‘m.g’
multiplied by the cosine of the road angle.

It is important to note that the rolling resistance force is independent of the vehicle speed,
and it is always opposite the driving direction. The coefficient C_r should be low so as to keep
the frictional losses low. For modern cars, it’s typically around 0.01 to 0.02.

As the vehicle speed increase, the aerodynamic drag force opposes the vehicle motion as the
air as is forced to flow around the moving vehicle. . It can be calculated as the product of the
aerodynamic drag coefficient ‘C_d’, the front area of the vehicle ‘A_f’, the air density ‘ρ’ and
the square of the vehicle speed ‘v’, divided by 2.

It is hence important to note that the aerodynamic drag in independent of vehicle mass but
has a strong dependence on the vehicle speed. That is why in a car, the aerodynamic drag
force is higher than the rolling resistance force when the speed is above about 70 to 80 km/h.

Secondly, The coefficient of drag is typically about 0.25 to 0.35 for a modern car. SUVs, with
their typically boxy shapes, have coefficients in the range of 0.35 to 0.45.

The third force that acts on a vehicle is the gradient force, and it occurs when the vehicle is
driving on an uphill or a downhill road. The gradient force is due to the longitudinal
component of gravitational force, namely ‘mgsin(θ)’ where theta is the inclination angle of
the road. As seen earlier, the cosine component, ‘mgcos(θ)’ contributes to the normal force
and the corresponding rolling resistance force.

The gradient force and the angle thetha are negative when driving downhill, and positive
when driving uphill. Road gradients are expressed as a percentage in terms of tangent theta
and have a value typically between plus or minus 10%.
If we now consider a vehicle moving on an inclined surface, then the aerodynamic drag force,
the rolling resistance force and the gradient force act on the vehicle. If we now include the
traction force provided by the vehicle powertrain, then the net force on the vehicle, F_net, is
the difference between the traction force and the sum of the forces due to the aerodynamic
drag, the rolling resistance and the road gradient.

By Newton’s second law, the net force is equal to the product of the vehicle mass and vehicle
acceleration.

Therefore, we can control the vehicle acceleration and thereby the speed by controlling the
traction force that the powertrain produces. The traction force is in the driving direction most
of the time, but it can be zero when the vehicle is coasting or even negative when the
powertrain is under regenerative braking.

If we now expand the equation for the traction force, we can see the factors that influence
the vehicle forces: the vehicle mass and road angle effects the rolling resistance and gradient
force, vehicle speed decides the aerodynamic drag force, and the rest of the traction force
decides the vehicle acceleration. If we need to estimate the power delivered by the
powertrain P_tract, then we need to multiply the traction force F_tract with the speed of the
vehicle v.

It is important to realise that in this lecture, we only take into account the forces in the forward
and reverse direction, as they influence the powertrain. The forces in other directions are
neglected for simplicity. Secondly, the forces in the vehicle are assumed to be acting at one
point. In reality, the forces are distributed over the vehicle.

Let us now look at a force/speed diagram of a vehicle with a mass of 1.5 ton, frontal area of
2.5m^2 and the speed range of 0-200 km/h. From the formula for the traction force, we can
calculate the force at each speed level for zero vehicle acceleration. Those points make a
force/speed curve of this car. When the speed is close to zero, then traction force is used to
overcome the rolling resistance force. As the speed increase, the traction force needed
increases fast, as the aerodynamic force increase with the square of the speed.

Next, let us investigate 3 road conditions, a flat road, a 5% gradient uphill, and a 5% gradient
downhill. We can see in the downhill condition, the traction force needed for low speeds is
negative, as the gradient force is larger than combined rolling resistance and aerodynamic
drag forces. On the other hand, the uphill gradient requires a significantly higher traction
force for the same speed than the 0% or downhill gradient.

Finally, let’s consider the case when the vehicle has a finite acceleration. This is the
speed/force curve for the same car with 0% gradient and zero acceleration. Since the mass of
the car is 1500kg, for every 1m/s2 acceleration, an extra 1500N traction force from the
powertrain would be required.
Besides the traction force, the EV battery also provides power for the vehicle auxiliaries, like
heating, air conditioning, lighting, wiper etc. Hence, the net power delivered by the traction
battery, P_batt is the sum of the traction power P_tract and the auxiliary power P_aux.

To conclude, the forces acting on a vehicle when it’s driving consist of the rolling resistance
force, the aerodynamic drag force and the gradient force. The drive train provides the traction
force, which can be controlled to change the vehicle acceleration and hence the speed.