Rapid Decision-Making Tool for Powertrain Sizing

Abstract

In the early stages of electric vehicle design, the decision-making process concerns the component sizing and trade-offs between various configurations to achieve or update initial target specifications. Motorcycle performance and range are more sensitive to added mass due to configuration selection. Hence, there is a need to quantify the high-level implications of different powertrain configurations and component selection, affecting the total vehicle mass, vehicle range, vehicle acceleration performance. An Excel spreadsheet-based model is described in this paper to aid decision-makers at the early stages of vehicle design. The tool is capable of sizing battery pack, inverter, traction, motor and gearbox, and making performance estimations of a powertrain configuration and component selection. The tool is validated against the listed ranges of two motorcycles and predicts energy usage with an error of 5% for low-speed drive cycles.