Effect of Alternator Control on Vehicle Fuel Economy

For many years there has been a trend to increased electrical energy consumption in cars caused by the replacement of mechanical parts by electronic or mechanical devices as well as the introduction of new electronic features. Whereas the number of electrical consumers continues to increase, the battery is still the only passive power source available. Because of this reason, needs for driving power of the engine accessories such as alternator system have increased. Usually, conventional alternator system is directly driven by the crankshaft of engine with belt. Since this increase bring about additional fuel economy. To improve this system automobile makers develops new controled alternator system. This paper focuses on fuel economy improvement according to control of alternator. In this paper, researches are performed on effect of type of Alternator system on fuel economy by experiment. And it is also calculated the effect on vehicle fuel economy using computer simulation with AVL cruise software. As a result, 0.64% of vehicle fuel economy improvement can be achieved in a vehicle with controled Alternator system compared to a vehicle with conventional Alternator system in NEDC mode.