Nowadays, the increase in the global population and the rise in living standards lead to a growing number of cars on the roads, resulting in an increase in emissions. It becomes crucial for society to make efforts to modernize the entire vehicle fleet to emission standards adequate for combating climate change, accelerating the natural turnover of older vehicles whenever possible. For this reason, the following study delves into the category of mild hybrid electric vehicles, which can be easily obtained through retrofitting practices from existing vehicles, thus enabling the enhancement of a large number of cars using minimal materials and requiring minimal time.
The present paper focuses on the performance of the traction electric machine, whose dynamic model - based on the equivalent circuit model of a surface synchronous permanent magnet electric motor - is shown to allow for an accurate representation of instantaneous power and efficiency during its operation. Still, this motor model is interfaced with the 1D fluid dynamics model of the thermal engine, which enables precise simulation of combustion processes and gas dynamics, and a first-order dynamic model of the lithium-ion battery to provide a more reliable estimation of its response to varying load conditions and state of charge.