The course aims to analyse in detail the principal issues in the adoption of switching power converters and electric drives in autonomous (non-cable supplied) Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (EV) within private and public transportation. On one side the autonomy increase for EV and, on the other, the electric energy increase demand in the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles are the starting points for the presentation of all the different solutions for electric hybridisation. Main electric components of the electric traction line will be presented as well as the electric energy sources and storage systems like batteries, fuel-cells, super-capacitors and flywheels. Safety and standardization issues will be sided all along the course to highlight the importance that this aspect has in the automotive world.

Ability in system evaluation and design for hybrid and electric propulsion structures.
Electrical sensitivity in the world of hybrid and electric traction together with the analysis of the principal issues on performance and safety inside the different aspects of the traction.
Increased capability in the design sensitivity that the (H)EV world needs

Good basis in Electrical Engineering, Electric Machines and Power Electronic structures. Thermal modelling and fundamentals in Cinematics are required. Ability in the definition and use of non-dynamic simulations for energy and power estimations.

EV and HEV classification. Analysis of the principal configurations and interaction of the electric drive line with the ICE drive line. (10h)
Vehicle performance requirements and level of hybridization. Effect on the specifications of the various elements of the electric drive line. (10h)
Components of the electric drive line. Change of the view point when entering in the design for traction. (10h)
On board sources of electric energy: batteries, fuel-cells, super-capacitors and flywheels. Interaction with vehicle specifications. (10h)
Drive structures for the different on-board applications, which electric machines and starting specifications. (12h)
Specifications writings and reading of the different elements in an electric drive line. Sizing and choices of the electric machine, power converter and storage system. The effects of the ancillary services. (20h)
Final considerations on the actual software adopted for the different phases of the design. State of the art and future trends in power electronic and electric machines (8h)

Together with the room lessons, numerical exercises are foreseen along the course as well as laboratory experiences. The student is guided along the course to a design activity that enters in the details of the various elements that composes the Electric Drive Line in order to understand the collateral effect of choices done at system level.

Books required or suggested: readings, handout, other didactic material.

The teaching material is available at the web-site of course and will be available in English and Italian.

Books that can be adopted as integrative material:

Graham Atkin and Jonathan Storey, "Electric Vehicles (Prospects to battery-, fuel cell- and hybrid-powered vehicles)", Financial Times Automotive, Maple House, 149 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9LL, UK, 1998:
A. Szumanowski, "Fundamentals of hybrid vehicle drives", ITE Warsaw-Radom 2000 (www.itee.radom.pl mailto: instytut@itee.radom.pl)
D.A.J. Rand, R. Woods, R.M. Dell, "Batteries for Electric Vehicles", Research Studies Press Ltd., 1998:
J. Larminie, A. Dicks, "Fuel Cell System Explained ", J. Wiley & Sons, 2000 (overview)
M. Ehsani, Y. Gao, S. E. Gay and A. Emadi, "Modern Electric, Hybrid Electric, and Fuel Cell Vehicles: Fundamentals, Theory, and Design" (Power Electronics and Applications Series) CRC-PRESS
G. Pede, G. Brusaglino e Vitali, "Sistemi di Propulsione Elettrica ed Ibrida: dalla Sorgente a Bordo all'Attuazione Meccanica" ENEA 2009

1) Examination
The examination is based on the defence of the design report for an electric drive line for EV or HEV. The report is based on a theme that is given to the student in the first week of course. Once the students received the theme they have to complete the report with the following parts:
First part: Traction sizing
Second part: Specification of the electric drive line elements
Third part: Detailed design of the principal elements of (one of) the proposed drive line(s).

2) Final evaluation calculation:
Each part received an evaluation on base 30. Each part will be evaluated over: completeness, calculation precision, coherence in the choices and clearness in the exposition. These four aspects are evaluated with a vote from 0 to 10 (10 be the best) and weighted in the same way to the final vote for each part. To the resulting number, up to 4 points can be added for personal contribution outside the required fields. The result is normalized to 30 and saturated to 27. On the final discussion, when the report is presented, a variation (positive and negative) of 3 point can be obtained based on the justifications given. The laude will be given only to who had saturated in the evaluation of the first 2 parts.
The whole of the report should not exceed 50 pages.

3) Examination topics
The course is organised so to let the student express its design and evaluation capabilities in an extreme autonomous way. The fact that the course leads to a specific design exercise implies that all the other engineering aspects, not directly treated inside the course, are essential for a good evaluation.
In the following the details of the different points that are considered essential for a complete design of the electric drive line are given.
First Part
Reference vehicle and utilization use cases
Hybridization level and justification of the choices
Vehicle performance requirements (data given and data chosen by the student)
Estimation of the efficiencies of the different subsystems in the electric traction line
Evaluation of the traction resistance in all the conditions
Continuous torque specification
Energy evaluation on a specific standardized cycle
Energy evaluation on a specific non-standardized cycle suited to the application
Power specification of the traction line

Second Part
Specifications of the principal elements of the electric traction line: gearbox, electric motor, power converter, auxiliaries’ converter, storage system. For each of them the following must be specified:
Expected dimensions, required performance, expected efficiency, reference standards, cooling conditions, testing conditions, expected cost.
Third Part
First design of the main elements of the electric traction line. The level of detail required will be specified along the course. The design implies to define a solution for each active and reactive elements inside the traction line. All capacitive components have to be chosen, only one inductive component have to be detailed designed.
Conclusion and self-evaluation of the proposed solution.