Investigation of Practical HEV Test Procedures with Prototypes from the 1997 FutureCar Challenge

Many problems are associated with applying standardized vehicle test methods, such as the Federal Test Procedure (FTP), to hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). Since 1992, the Society of Automotive Engineers' (SAE's) HEV Test Procedure Task Force has been working on developing a standard procedure for HEV testing (Draft SAE J1711). Because the current draft requires considerable knowledge of the vehicle's response to the test cycles, still has unresolved problems, and is too lengthy, Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) uses portions of past J1711 drafts in combination with concepts developed through many HEV tests (over 50 to date) for its HEV competition testing. Successful vehicle characterization was achieved at the 1997 FutureCar Challenge competition by characterizing each vehicle's individual operational modes in such a way that the elements of the FTP and Federal Highway Test were satisfied. The HEV results from these methods can be compared with test results from conventional vehicles. The test methods are presented, and actual results and test sequencing are shown from HEV tests at the EPA's National Vehicle and Fuels Emissions Laboratory (NVFEL) in Ann Arbor, Mich., during the 1997 FutureCar Challenge.