A Novel Approach on Range Prediction of a Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Truck 2019-28-2514

Today’s growing commercial vehicle population creates a demand for fossil fuel surplus requirement and develops highly polluted urban cities in the world. Hence addressing both factors is very much essential. Battery electric vehicles are with limited vehicle range and higher charging time. So it is not suitable for the long-haul application. In further the hydrogen fuel cell-based electric vehicles are the future of the commercial electric vehicle to achieve long-range, zero-emission and alternate for reducing fossil fuels requirement.

The hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle range, it means the total distance covered by the vehicle in a single filling of hydrogen into the onboard cylinders. And here the prediction of the vehicle range is essential based on optimal parameters; vehicle acceleration, speed, trip time etc. before the start of the trip.

If the driver starts the vehicle without range prediction and optimum driving strategy, will be led into midway vehicle stoppage and excessive energy consumption of the trip.

This paper deals with different methods of electric vehicle range prediction and optimization, benefits and demerits are listed and discussed, to provide a fair idea on hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle range prediction. Also, the paper has concluded with the optimization strategy for the vehicle range by analyzing the vehicle powertrain module, battery module, fuel cell module, hydrogen fuel supply module and the vehicle module. The strategy presented in this paper is aiming for assisting the driver in formulating a driving strategy and for trip planning based on optimization trip parameters, considering optimum energy consumption. One fuel cell vehicle tested with proposed strategies and results observed are matching. And there may be a scope of improvement if the researchers test on multiple vehicles.