Fuel economy evaluation of fuel cell hybrid vehicles based on equivalent fuel consumption

Fuel cell hybrid vehicles (FCHVs) have become a major topic of interest in the automotive industry owing to recent energy supply and environmental problems. Consequently, fuel economy evaluation methods of FCHVs have a popular research topic. The initial state of charge (SOC) and the final SOC of the battery have to be identical in an evaluation of the fuel economy of an FCHV. In an actual driving situation or during a forward simulation, however, the final SOC depends on the power management strategy, which is usually different from the initial SOC. To consider the effect of the difference between the initial and final SOC on fuel economy evaluation, the concept of equivalent fuel consumption, based on the optimal control, is introduced in this paper. A rule-based power management strategy is applied to an FCHV, and its fuel economy is evaluated in terms of the equivalent fuel consumption and compared to the optimal control result.