Scale-e-Drive

Scaling effects through modular drive architectures for commercial vehicles

The proportion of electric commercial vehicles, for example, almost doubled in 2018 compared to 2017, but is largely attributable to the class below 3.5 tons. The 3.5 to 7-ton class is currently still based almost exclusively on combustion engines. One of the main reasons for this is the lack of technically suitable vehicles on offer, particularly from German car manufacturers. The technical hurdles are the high requirement profiles specific to commercial vehicles, the comparatively low quantities and the associated high development costs with the problem of timely market launch. The approach in this research project is to enable the use of existing electric motors, e.g. from the passenger car sector, for light trucks. This will enable scaling effects and the timely introduction of commercial vehicles with electric drives, which is important in global competition.

However, simply applying electric drives from the passenger car sector to commercial vehicles is not sufficient, as high power reserves would be required to simultaneously meet the torque and speed requirements, which would drive up costs, volume and weight and would also be disadvantageous in terms of energy. Such over-specification is to be avoided with the help of suitable transmission concepts and operating strategies that make use of the high dynamics of the electric motor and intelligent temperature management, so that lightweight and cost-effective electric drives (including converters) such as those used in the passenger car sector can also be applied in the commercial vehicle sector in an energy-efficient manner. This results in the aforementioned scaling effects as well as significantly reduced development costs and risks, through which the economic and time frame conditions can be met.

The fundamental research objective is to fully cover the highly variable and demanding driving dynamics requirements. The knowledge gained allows both efficiency and system weight to be optimized. The results will be verified on test benches and in a test vehicle using a prototype designed and realized as part of the research project.

Project duration: 01.08.2020 to 31.07.2023

• Daimler Truck AG, Mercedes-Benz plant Kassel
• Department of Mechatronics with a focus on vehicles, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Michael Fister, University of Kassel
• Department of Vehicle Systems and Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering, Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Ludwig Brabetz, University of Kassel