Research of Regenerative Braking Strategy for Electric Vehicles

In the context of global energy instability caused by the transformation of global demand for energy and energy resources, one of the most important areas in the automotive industry is the development of electric vehicles. Serial production of high-tech electric vehicles with a long range contributes to the stabilization of the energy market and the sustainable development of the whole fuel-energy sector. To evaluate the possibility of optimizing the electric vehicles energy consumption, various regenerative braking strategies are discussed in the article based on the Nissan Leaf electric vehicle, which simulation model includes submodules of the traction electric motor, hybrid braking system, traction rechargeable battery and tires. In order to test the adequacy of the simulation model to reproduce the relationship between the operating parameters of electric vehicles various systems and evaluate their ability to regenerate energy during braking the simulation results were compared with the actual experimental data published by the Lab Avt research laboratory (USA). The relative error of the mathematical modeling results of the braking energy regeneration processes is 4.5 %, which indicates the adequacy of the electric vehicle simulation model and the possibility of its using as a base for research and comparison of the energy efficiency of various regenerative braking strategies. As the results of experiments have shown, the usage of the proposed control strategy of the regenerative braking maximum force allows increasing 2.14 times the energy recharging traffic to the battery as compared with the basic control strategy of fixed coefficient braking forces distribution with an increase in braking distance by 10 m. An alternative control strategy of regenerative braking optimal efficiency as compared to the basic control strategy provides a reduction in braking distance by 13.2 % at increasing by 84.4 % the amount of energy generated by the electric motor for recharging the batteries. The carried out investigations confirm the available significant potential for improving the efficiency of the electric vehicles usage by developing the control strategy and algorithms of the braking energy regeneration.