Dynamic Motor Drive Software lmproves Electric Propulsion Efficiency by up to 3%

Authors

M. Younkins, B. Wolk, V. Srinivasan, P. Farah, M. Wilcutts, P. Carvell, Tula Technology, San Jose:

Year

2024

Print Info

Production/Publication ÖVK

Summary

Improving the efficiency of electric vehicle powertrains is one of the most critical challenges facing the automotive world today. Making substantial improvements will mitigate grid loads, decrease pollution created during electricity generation, and reduce the reliance on problematic new raw materials.

To improve the energy consumption of electric vehicles, a new strategy, Dynamic Motor Drive (DMD), has been demonstrated. Under light loads, the motor intermittently delivers torque at optimal efficiency. With careful selection of the pulsing strategy, energy consumption is minimized while, simultaneously, perceptible vibration is eliminated. This combination of improved efficiency coupled with imperceptible operation has been proven in two vehicles thus far.

In the first application, a Chevrolet Bolt has been retrofitted with DMD software, leaving the Internal Permanent Magnet (IPM) motor unmodified. On this application, DMD has been experimentally proven on a vehicle to improve energy consumption by nearly 0.6% on the China light-duty test cycle.

In the second application, the IPM rotor in a Tesla Model 3 was retrofitted with a wound rotor to create an Externally Excited Synchronous Motor (EESM) Model 3. On this application, energy consumption is projected to improve by up to 3%.

Vehicles built by Tula and outfitted with this DMD software have demonstrated in practice that these efficiency improvements are made possible while simultaneously eliminating perceptible vibration.

ISBN

978-3-9504969-3-2

DOI

https://doi.org/10.62626/69d9-43ef