Electric vehicle design, modelling and optimization

International audienceElectric vehicles are by many seen as the cars of the future as they are very efficient, produce no local pollution, are silent, and can be used for power regulation by the grid operator. In order to be able to estimate the performances of an electric vehicle it is very important to have a proper model of it. The electric vehicle model is very complex as it contains many different components. Each component needs to be modelled properly in order to prevent wrong conclusions. The design or rating of each component is a difficult task as the parameters of one component affect the power level of another one. There is therefore a risk that one component is rated inappropriately which may make the vehicle unnecessary expensive or inefficient. In this paper a new design model of the electric vehicle is presented. This model is based on the combination of Modelica with ModelCenter. Modelica has been used to model and simulate the electric vehicle and ModelCenter has been used to optimize the design variables. The model ensures that the requirements related to driving distance and acceleration are fulfilled