A study on determination of component sizing capacity for range performance, cost and CO2 production of an extended-range electric vehicle

Extended-range electric vehicles, which are equipped with a generator including a small gasoline engine as a range extender unit, have become attractive because of their high range and low battery cost potentials. In this study, firstly, the effects of the capacity of the generator module and the battery on the vehicle range, the battery weight, and the battery cost are calculated to determine the design alternatives of the powertrain taking into account the design constraints. Then, vehicle powertrain with each applicable design alternatives, which consist of feasible parameters as battery type, battery capacity, generator power output, and fuel tank capacity, is simulated for ECE-15 drive cycle requirements to determine the vehicle range, the total cost, and the CO2 production. After carrying out a single-objective optimisation procedure, the results yielded the optimum design parameters as follows; 100 Ah-15.36 kWh battery and 2 kW generator power output for the maximum vehicle range, 100 Ah-15.36 kWh battery and 1.7 kW generator power output for the minimum cost, and 40 Ah-15.36 kWh battery and 1.7 kW generator power output for the minimum CO2 production