Comparative Analysis of Energy Management Strategies in Through-the-Road Hybrid Electric Vehicles for Improved Fuel Economy

Since the last few years, the earth is undergoing severe environmental changes which are producing adverse effects on the wellbeing of the humans as well as the planet. One of the main reasons behind these changes is the pollution caused by industrialization and the transportation facilities. The fossil fuels consumed by the internal combustion engines (ICE) in conventional vehicles are producing Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Scientists across the globe have made a prediction that fossil fuels will only last for the 21st century. This made the governments worldwide to focus on the development of Renewable Energies and are thus offering various subsidies on battery electric vehicles (BEV). However, the primary concern is the use of fossil fuels for manufacturing batteries. A hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is the combination of an internal combustion engine and electric motor with a battery. The through-the-road (TtR) is a concept used in parallel hybrid electric vehicles, in which the engine powers one axle and the electric motor powers the other axle. To increase the fuel-efficiency of the HEV and to produce less emissions, the HEV is integrated with an energy management system (EMS). In this paper two different EMS strategies such as Rule-based strategy and Optimization-based strategy used in TtR HEV are reviewed and compared. The aim of this paper is to find the most efficient EMS strategy for improving the fuel efficiency in TtR HEV. The results show that the solutions vary significantly in terms of fuel efficiency and real-time application, offering important information for future advancements in TTR HEV energy management.