For hybrid vehicles, it is difficult to obtain realistic component models and actual interaction between subsystems without carrying out experiments. INRETS has performed a coupled approach associating simulation using its in house VEHLIB software together with experimental validation. Such an approach makes it possible to obtain validated component models as well as a realistic functioning of the overall vehicle model, which is a necessary step before studying energy optimisation, component resizing and architecture comparison. This paper highlights the evaluation and modelling of the main components of the Toyota Hybrid Systems (THS) used in the 2004 Prius Vehicle. It focuses especially on the new or improved components compared to the first THS systems. First, the ICE, battery, boost converter, and strategy evaluation and validation process to obtain a useful model of the vehicle and components are examined. Then examples of application are presented concerning energy flow in the vehicle and engine operation compared to a conventional car.

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The polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) system is considered as an alternative power source and is particularly promising for mobile applications. This paper reports some experimental results performed on a PEFC stack, operating in anodic dead end mode. The flush frequency of the anode is investigated. In order to reduce hydrogen consumption in an embedded application, the flush frequency could be calculated from system modelling, according to the operating conditions. The first step of such a model is presented. It simulates the water exchanges between the anode and cathode channels in the anode dead end case. It has been implemented in a MATLAB® environment.

This paper presents a simulation study dealing with the influence of different factors on the energy consumption of an electric vehicle (EV). Due to the limited quantity of energy embedded in the battery, EVs are very sensitive to parameters which can influence their energy consumption and then can induce huge variations in their actual range. Among all these factors, driving conditions, auxiliaries' impact, driver's aggressiveness and braking energy recovery strategy are to be considered as the main factors influencing the EV energy consumption. The objective of this paper is thus to simulate and quantify the influence of each factor independently. For this, a virtual EV simulator has been created and validated through EVs experiments on a climatic 4WD chassis dyno in the frame of a project sponsored by the French ADEME and with the help of PSA, Renault and Tazzari car manufacturers. This simulator, validated thanks to a limited number of experimental results, has been then used on a very large range of operating conditions and hypotheses to extrapolate experimental results and help the analyses of influencing factors.