Development of electric drive concepts for fuel cell vehicles for Germany and China

Autoren

Katharina Bause, Adrian Braumandl, Alexander Stephan, Qiwen Xiao, Matthias Behrendt, IPEK – Institut für Produktentwicklung am Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)

Jahr

2019

Zusammenfassung

Regarding the electrification of powertrain in the recent years, different ways seem to be possible. The diversity of drive systems and their topologies are increasing permanently. Even the differences between various markets are remarkable and influence the way of developing technical solutions as well as the mix of technologies in market. Whereas Asian manufactures act often due to legacy, European manufacturers develop their drive system technologies more freely due to a market pull.
For Chinese Megacities battery electric vehicles are not a reliable solution at all because the grid capacities are too limited to manage the loading demand. Thus, they are working at electrified drive system solutions with less battery capacity. Hydrogen fuel cell driven vehicles (FCEV) come into focus. Concurrently, the technical reasonable solution requires an electrical buffer like a battery or capacitor. For a few years, automotive manufacturers develop FCEV using fuel cell as the primary source of energy, which is the decisive component regarding the vehicle operational range, although some of them are designed as plug-in and have a chargeable battery that is able to supply energy for short trips. Comparing different vehicles in market, it becomes obvious that low pressure
systems are more common than high pressure systems. Some studies looking at BEV using a fuel cell as rage extender as well as using methanol based solutions. [1, 2, 3]
Due to limited number of product generations in development and market, there are a number of unanswered questions within the development of fuel cell vehicles. Few of them are fundamental like: Liquid or gaseous hydrogen? On-site generation or hydrogen network? Degree of hybridisation? High pressure or low pressure system? In addition, the demand and expectations of customer are not finally clarified due to the limited number of product generations. Thus, the development process is subject to uncertainties as well as the validation of the product and its properties.
The authors will deal with some aspects of the above mentioned issues by providing methods to support the development and validation process of FCEV. Within a research project, we want to address these questions by performing and analysing the development of demand-orientated future FCEV. Based on the analyses of two different markets and the weaknesses of existing drive systems, product profiles are formulated which are the key for a successful development and product validation. Regarding different approaches for the development, the need of fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles’ design and validation is derived and presented in this paper.

Mitglieder-Login