Analyzing the Energy Consumption Variation during Chassis Dynamometer Testing of Conventional, Hybrid Electric, and Battery Electric Vehicles

Production vehicles are commonly characterized and compared using fuel consumption (FC) and electric energy consumption (EC) metrics. Chassis dynamometer testing is a tool used to establish these metrics, and to benchmark the effectiveness of a vehicle's powertrain under numerous testing conditions and environments. Whether the vehicle is undergoing EPA Five-Cycle Fuel Economy (FE), component lifecycle, thermal, or benchmark testing, it is important to identify the vehicle and testing based variations of energy consumption results from these tests to establish the accuracy of the test's results. Traditionally, the uncertainty in vehicle test results is communicated using the variation. With the increasing complexity of vehicle powertrain technology and operation, a fixed energy consumption variation may no longer be a correct assumption. This paper will present the observed energy consumption variation as measured from the variation in the battery net energy change (NEC), and the variation observed during thermal dynamometer testing. Results will be provided for a variety of vehicle architectures tested on common drive cycles.