Driver and vehicle behaviour to power train failures in electric vehicles : experimental results of field and simulator studies

New electric power trains can be subject to different failures when compared to those arising in conventional vehicles. The objectives for active safety investigations within the EVERSAFE project were to address vehicle stability under these failure conditions and the driver response to relevant types of failures. Failure conditions that affect the vehicle stability are believed to be significantly different from today’s conventional internal combustion engine cars, and may potentially be a substantial safety problem if not treated in a correct manner. To study these effects, two examples of system failures and their consequences on the driver response and vehicle stability were investigated with the help of three studies. The first two studies investigated a failure of wheel hub motors (WHMs), an emerging technology among the future generation of electric vehicles (EV). The main benefits of a WHM are its controllability, high efficiency, high power density and low weight. However, the direct connection to the wheel comes along with the potential disadvantage in case a failure occurs in the system. The third study conducted within the active safety focus of the EVERSAFE project examined a failure of the regenerative braking (RB) system. The latter is a system designed to convert kinetic energy to chemical energy stored in the energy storage system (i.e. battery) while the vehicle decelerates.EverSaf