Energy Management Strategy for a High-Performance Hybrid Vehicle

Energetic efficiency and fuel consumption reduction became a top priority for the automotive sector over the last few years, due to the increasingly severe regulations introduced. An energy management strategy was required on the latest Lamborghini model, so that to address the fuel consumption optimization issue. A virtual model of the car was designed to simulate the entire vehicle, with particular focus on the longitudinal performances and the energetic consumption of its actuators. The model was built using the Matlab-Simulink software, exploiting experimental data for the core components such as engine, motors and batteries. A rule-based strategy was chosen after extensive studies over state-of-the-art analysis of the competitors, as well as literature research over hybrid vehicles and their energy management strategies. An in-dept description of the strategy is provided. Framework, working principles, the tuning and training process, and each rule applied to the model, are described extensively and are followed by examples. Several tests were carried out to demonstrate the improvements in fuel consumption due to the strategy, first when compared to its earlier versions, as well as when compared to the same car, with the series hybrid architecture and strategy instead. Findings show that the different powertrain combinations chosen in real time by the proposed rule-based strategy improved the fuel consumption of the parallel hybrid model, up to a point that, when tested, such approach proved to be considerably more efficient than the series hybrid one.