Test Bench Development for Semi-real Vehicle Prototype

In recent years the automotive industry focuses on vehicles electrification with a consequent increase in the production of electric vehicles (EVs). The request to adopt electric vehicles arises with the aim of reducing atmospheric and acoustic pollution. Moreover, electric motors are more efficient than the internal combustion engine (ICE) ones and require less maintenance. Moving in this direction, retrofit kits are a good solution to produce electric vehicles starting from existing vehicles. In particular the ICE can be replaced by the electric motor, saving in this way a huge amount of starting materials to produce a new vehicle and so reducing the costs. This thesis is part of the EVERGRIN project of the company CustoM 2.0 s.r.l. and partners, whose aim is to produce and commercialize an innovative electric vehicle retrofit kit for the Fiat Panda G1.2, regulated by the Decreto Legge 219/2015 (Decreto Retrofit). The main goal of the thesis is to create the thermal models of the motor and the battery, which are part of a semi-real Vehicle Prototype. This prototype is a reliable representation of the real vehicle, accounting for the mechanical, electrical, dynamic part and human machine interaction with the user. The development of a virtual model is required by the ISO 26262 standard, which regulates the procedure to be followed to guarantee functional safety for road vehicles. The models are built by using MATLAB and Simulink tools, with the possibility of being imported into NI VeriStand, which represents the virtual interface with the test bench and whose procedure is documented in this thesis.