CEVT tests Lynk & Co 01 PHEV in Chalmers hybrid lab

“The combination of theoretical knowledge, virtual engineering tools and a top modern all-wheel drive vehicle laboratory is really strong here. We are very happy of having Chalmers so close to us”, says Johan Hellsing, Team leader Sustainable Innovation at CEVT.

A while back Chalmers and CEVT entered a strategic partnership and have quite a few research project running together right now. This particular research project with Chalmers is a cooperation on how to control hybrid powertrains. CEVT do gearbox control and Chalmers the engine control, and there is also some common discussions on complete powertrain control.

At the moment we are testing fuel consumption and emissions when running the standardized cycles, NEDC and WLTC. Soon we will move over to a more dynamic test cycle. According to Johan Hellsing we want to quantify how much lower fuel consumption and exhaust emissions we get when relying more on the electric motor in transient operation. In other words, lower requirements on fast torque response from the engine should be beneficial in hybrid powertrains.

“On gearbox control, we are doing our in-house controls research on a 7DCTH fully described by software models, resulting in several research papers and two patent applications so far. Our PHEV is quite unique in the way that it gives us a high degree of engineering freedom. Positive in many ways, but we still have more to learn about how to use it in the most optimal way.Therefore this research project is important to continue to improve on powertrain control”, he explains.

“The most exciting part comes perhaps when we will start looking into the details on how to re-start the engine in the most efficient way. This is critical as hybrid powertrains have frequent re-starts. We have still a lot to learn here”, Johan concludes.