Total Cost of Ownership Optimization of a plug-in Hybrid Electric Truck Operating on a Regional Haul Cycle

This paper introduces a novel methodology for minimizing the total cost of ownership (TCO) of plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (pHEVs) in the context of heavy duty application. This approach enables the best powertrain components sizing to be determined coupled with the optimal energy management. A detailed financial cost model of the truck is developed to take into consideration the differences in spending from a conventional Diesel vehicle. The introduction of eight design variables enables to explore both internal combustion engine, electrical motor and battery alternative designs. Then, a coupled optimization problem is formulated as a bi-level form with powertrain optimal energy management based on a combinatorial problem formulation solved by Simplex algorithm and Branch & Bound in the inner loop and exhaustive evaluation of the powertrain designs in the outer loop. The results obtained from this new optimization framework show a 2% potential financial savings for a pHEV operating by the end of the decade on a regional haul application while decreasing CO2 emissions by more than 38% compared to a conventional Diesel truck.