Evaluation of a Back-up Range Extender and Other Heavy-Duty BEV-Supporting Systems

Abstract

Electric powertrains in terms of battery electric vehicles (BEV) are considered to be very interesting for heavy truck transportations. The challenge is the need for very large onboard energy and batteries. Long-term fuel cells (FCs) are considered an interesting support system for heavy-duty BEV, but in the short term, a range extender (REX) is also interesting. A heavy-duty BEV with 970 kWh batteries installed can handle 27% of all possible missions for the Scania fleet considering daily recharging. The back-up range extender (BUREX) can expand this figure to 55% utilized 20 days per year. If a customer has a few very energy-demanding use cases each year and does not want to pay for all the batteries needed, the BUREX may be an especially good option. The BUREX reduces life-cycle CO2 emissions, irrespective of the generation mix of the grid supplying the electricity used in vehicle manufacturing and battery charging. The BUREX reuse of the existing electric components of the BEV powertrain enables the installation of a 10% larger battery pack while being 80% less costly. The BUREX also adds redundancy to the BEV concept while recharging infrastructure improves, especially in rural places. These results indicate that the BUREX concept is a powerful short-term solution that could enable greater use of HD FC and BEV trucks while charging infrastructure and FC technologies gradually become more mature.

Challenges and opportunities of FACTS devices interacting with electric vehicles in distribution networks: A technological review

“…The Monte Carlo technique is utilized in this research to assess the impact of EV nodes on the entire network in the event of each probability breakdown in the power grid (PG) [268]. A heavy-duty BEV and back-up range extender (BUREX) comparative analysis takes place [269]. The effectiveness of the UPFC is examined in this research using the SMIB platform and the MATLAB 2009 Simulation platform [270].…”

A Review of Fuel Cell Powertrains for Long-Haul Heavy-Duty Vehicles: Technology, Hydrogen, Energy and Thermal Management Solutions

“…Plug-in battery charging and FCS range extender type operation as seen in the GIANTLEAP project, other city bus examples [59][60][61], the ZECT project [62,63] and a larger ESS battery size for geologically focused trips as seen in REVIVE project garbage truck demonstrators [64,65] is uncommon for long-haul due to the nature of the long-distance freight application for minimising vehicle costs and battery weight. A small FCS range extender could be a good option for HD medium-range BEV applications to cover most journeys using grid electricity while also being capable of occasional long-distance missions [66].…”

Estimation of Energy Management Strategy Using Neural-Network-Based Surrogate Model for Range Extended Vehicle

“…Despite significant technological improvements, batteries are quite expensive and currently much heavier than petroleum-based fuels with the same energy content. Zander et al [1] worked on different range-extending support systems such as fuel cells, in-use REX and back-up REX for heavy truck transportation. As a result of the comparison between these systems, back-up REX is an optimum solution for heavy trucks.…”