Energy Assessment of the Electric Powertrain System of a Formula Student Electric Race Car

While the shift to vehicle electrification plays a pivotal role in governments’ targets towards carbon neutrality, there exists certain technical challenges that need to be addressed. The motorsport car industry is also affected by this policy with the electric cars being included in the formula SAE and formula E competitions as one of the main categories. Moreover, there is a gap in the literature in energy assessment of the electric powertrain used in Formula SAE (FSAE) and Formula Student (FS) cars. In this paper, a Formula Student electric car powertrain was designed as a case study for energy analysis. The proposed electric powertrain is equipped with a four-wheel drive system. The vehicle was modelled in AVL CRUISE M software using technical and measured lab data as input parameters. Simulations were run in a transient driving cycle for a real circuit layout used in previous SAE competitions. The results of this study showed that, at maximum speed, the battery pack voltage and current reaches 600V and 112A, respectively. In addition, approximately 320.84Wh electrical energy of the battery was consumed in one lap of the circuit (1.1 km). Furthermore, the transient results are presented to indicate the final battery state of charge, voltage fade and current fluctuations in the electric propulsion system. Finally, the electric motors dynamic power and efficiency is presented and analyzed.