Extended V-Cycle Design – Application for a retrofit kit EV system integration and code development project

The Automotive Industry is making substantial investments toward the development of reliable alternatives to the traditional Internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. The most promising appear to be the electric vehicles (EVs), having a much lower environmental impact during their life-cycle. This market shift is expected to keep gaining momentum, as the regulatory authorities and the national governments invest and incentivise it to reach the long-term goals of mitigating the climate change causes and effects, and to gradually decommission the ICEs, starting with a scheduled production ban in 2035 in the whole EU. Moreover, one of the primary objectives of the UN Agenda 2030 is to reduce industrial waste and to shift to a production paradigm focused on recycling what has already been proven to be reliable. Combining these factors, the development of a retrofit kit to transform an existing ICE vehicle into an EV is an extremely cost-effective and environmentally friendly project that can leverage the timeliness of the worldwide transition, further prompted by the recent incentives and national regulations (DM 141/2022 “Decreto Retrofit”). The aim of the thesis is to develop a retrofit kit, tailored for the Panda 141, through an extensive analysis and use of the extended V-Cycle method as an optimised way to develop an electrical powertrain, and in particular the real-time management software, in a well-defined process, starting from the client general requests to an on-road prototype, while addressing the highest standards in terms of functional safety, traceability, efficiency and adherence to the widespread norms (such as ISO26262). This methodology provides a structured sequence of five major steps which cover the whole retrofit kit design process. The first (1) aims to define the customer needs by a series of Functional Requirements, then translated, at the start of the second phase (2.0), into technical specifications. Those are used as a starting point for the creation of the Modular Technical Model (MTM, 2.1), taking into account both the HW and SW aspects of the whole project, along with the compliance with the safety measure standards. The MTM loops through a MIL simulation step (2.2) which produces a validated Virtual Prototype. The following steps (2.3-2.4) consist in uploading the code into a VMU that will enter the SIL loop by a series of real bench tests. The Procurement phase (3) aims to make the HW choices that best suit the requests identified in the second phase of the cycle, in order to move towards the semi-real prototype Testing and Tuning phase (4) which, once validated and documented, may bring the process to the last phase, covering the on-road prototype test drives (5). The supporting case study focuses on the translation, implementation and validation of the control logic in the Modular Technical Model through the Mathworks (Stateflow) environment as a first loop (from 1 to 2.1). The following work focuses on the testing of the produced code through a MIL simulation (2.2) and the subsequent steps done to reach the testbench validation phase (2.3 - 2.4). A further example of the loop logic used on the whole second phase of the extended V-cycle has been examined in the manuscript. Along with the activities aimed at successfully uploading the code on the chosen VMU and the preliminary test-drives conducted, the extended V-cycle can be a promising cost-effective method to meticulously tackle the global rise of the vehicle electrification market.