Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles - An Optimal Solution for Future Electrification of Heavy Commercial Vehicles in India

IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference (ITEC-India), pp. 1–8

Abstract

Climate change and increasing pollution levels in Indian cities have acted as a catalyst for the Indian automotive Industry to aggressively look towards zero-emission powertrain solutions for future. Zero-emission powertrains like Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs) are being evaluated and implemented in various vehicular segments in India. Already the two-wheeler, three-wheeler and small passenger car segments are moving swiftly towards electrification. Due to the battery capacity limitations of BEVs and the resulting range as well as charging issues, FCEVs are of increasing interest for vehicle applications with long driving ranges. The presented study targets to find an optimized zero emission powertrain solution for a 42-ton truck for the Indian market. The Heavy Commercial Vehicle (HCV) segment in India has requirements like long driving range, low cost of ownership and equivalent payload carrying capacity/space compared to conventional vehicles. An evaluation of FCEV vs. BEV is done for the selected truck by performing powertrain simulations considering Indian driving conditions using GT Suite. With the longitudinal dynamics simulation models developed in GT Suite, components sizing of the powertrain subsystems like the Fuel Cell System (FCS), battery system etc. are performed for the FCEV and BEV architectures. Both the FCEV and BEV solutions are evaluated for system cost, operational cost, vehicle weight and overall energy efficiency to arrive at the most optimal solution for this segment

Authors 5

1. Simon Mertes Aachen

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   TME, RWTH Aachen University,Aachen,Germany

   TME, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

2. Shivam Garg
   Affiliation as printed

   Powertrain Simulations, FEV India Pvt. Ltd.,Pune,India

   Powertrain Simulations, FEV India Pvt. Ltd., Pune, India

3. Maximilian Wick Aachen

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   TME, RWTH Aachen University,Aachen,Germany

   TME, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

4. Marius Walters Aachen BEH-F

   FEV (Germany)

   Affiliation as printed

   BEH-F, FEV Europe GmbH.,Aachen,Germany

   BEH-F, FEV Europe GmbH., Aachen, Germany

5. Vijay Kumar Sharma
   Affiliation as printed

   FEV India Pvt. Ltd.,Pune,India

   FEV India Pvt. Ltd., Pune, India