Assessment of the Powertrain Electrification for a Heavy-Duty Class 8 Truck for Two Different Electric Drives

Electrification is one of the main solutions for the decarbonization of the transport system. It is employed widely by the automotive industry in light- and medium-duty vehicles and recently started to be considered in heavy-duty applications. However, powertrain electrification of heavy-duty vehicles, especially for Class 8 trucks, is very challenging. In this study, the battery-electric powertrain energy and technical performance of a DAF 44 tones truck are compared for two different electric drives. The case study truck is modeled in AVL CRUISE M software and the battery electric powertrain is evaluated for long haul driving cycle. The minimum number of battery packs is determined by defining the lowest energy consumption of the powertrain designed for the proposed drive cycle. Also, a transient analysis is accomplished to investigate the impact of various electric drives on energy consumption and performance of the proposed electric powertrain. From the results, 5 battery packs with 176 cells each and 94 Ah capacity, are required for a Class 8 heavy-duty trucks in long haul driving cycle. Furthermore, the truck conversion of the diesel propulsion system to the battery-electric propulsion system with INVO electric drive has resulted in improvement of the powertrain total efficiency, energy consumption and regenerative brake energy recovery up to 0.79%, 6.37% and 53.72%, respectively.