Charge-Depleting Control Strategies and Fuel Optimization of Blended-Mode Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles

This paper investigates the fuel consumption minimization problem of a blended-mode plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). A simplified mathematical model of the PHEV was constructed to obtain optimal solutions for depleting the battery to a given final state of charge (SOC) under constant vehicle speed. An optimal power strategy was constructed from theoretical analysis and simulation for constant speed cases and then applied to typical drive-cycle simulations for a middle-size plug-in sport utility vehicle in the Urban Dynamometer Driving Schedule, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency US06 (Supplemental Federal Test Procedure), and the CR-City drive cycles. Simulation results indicate that the proposed control strategy is more efficient than other strategies of interest. Only the electric system loss characteristics, vehicle power demand, total battery energy, and trip distance are needed to implement the proposed control strategy in a PHEV. It does not rely on the detailed trip information other than the total trip distance. Therefore, it is possible to implement the control strategy in real time if the total trip distance is known before the trip.