Analysis of Handling Performance of Hybrid Electric Vehicles

With increasing focus on addressing fossil fuel shortage and harmful automotive emissions, there has been a growing interest in hybrid electric and pure electric vehicles. A hybrid electric vehicle is driven by a combination of an internal combustion engine and an electric motor. The changes in the powertrain components result in changes in vehicle mass and mass distribution that affects the location of the vehicle’s centre of gravity amongst other things. Hence, a hybrid vehicle may not possess the same handling performance as a conventional internal combustion engine driven vehicle. This research work focuses on comparing the handling performance of a conventional engine driven vehicle and a hybrid electric vehicle. The bicycle dynamic model has been used to characterize the cornering dynamics of these two vehicles and the Mimuro plot has been used to analyze their handling characteristics. A sensitivity analysis has been carried out with respect to centre of gravity location and the cornering stiffness of the tires. An approach has been proposed to obtain comparable cornering characteristics in the hybrid vehicle as compared to the engine driven vehicle.