Energy management and design optimization for a series-parallel PHEV city bus

Series-parallel PHEV city buses combine the advantages of series and parallel configurations and have been used in China. However, the design and energy management of series-parallel PHEV city buses based on Chinese driving conditions still need to be investigated. In this paper, an equivalent consumption minimization strategy is provided to optimize energy management for series-parallel PHEV city buses, and the process of the equivalent consumption minimization strategy for series-parallel is presented in this paper. Compared with the validated rule-based energy control strategy, ECMS shows a fuel economy improvement of 8.2 % in the CBCD (Chinese Bus Driving Cycle). Based on the optimal energy management, a design for a generator motor in the series-parallel configuration has been processed. The fuel consumption has been shown to decrease, with an increase in generator power, because the system with the higher generator power can work at a higher efficiency in the series mode and operate the engine in the high efficiency area in the parallel mode. Besides, in terms of costof- ownership for a PHEV bus for lifetime of 8 years, although the high generator power will lead to high purchase cost for series-parallel PHEV bus, a series-parallel PHEV city bus with a generator of 100 kW maximum power will still show small advantage in cost-of-ownership, based on current motor price and natural gas price.