Battery Electric Vehicles: How Many Gears? A Technical–Economic Analysis
The large majority of electric cars have a single-speed gearbox, because electrified powertrains provide maximal power across a wide operating range, and single-speed simplifies construction and reduces capital costs. Nevertheless, multi-speed transmissions have also been developed for electric cars...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Vehicles |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2624-8921/6/1/3 |
| _version_ | 1797239096185192448 |
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| author | Emmanuele Bertucci Francesco Bucchi Massimo Ceraolo Francesco Frendo Giovanni Lutzemberger |
| author_facet | Emmanuele Bertucci Francesco Bucchi Massimo Ceraolo Francesco Frendo Giovanni Lutzemberger |
| author_sort | Emmanuele Bertucci |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The large majority of electric cars have a single-speed gearbox, because electrified powertrains provide maximal power across a wide operating range, and single-speed simplifies construction and reduces capital costs. Nevertheless, multi-speed transmissions have also been developed for electric cars, and some of them have recently appeared as commercial products. This paper aims to compare, through some practical examples, solutions with single-speed and dual-speed transmissions. In particular, given the very smooth driving of electric cars, for dual-speed solutions, a dual-clutch gearbox was considered. Finally, a continuously variable transmission (CVT) was also used. Different solutions were analyzed from a technical–economic point of view, based on a simulation of the vehicle under standardized driving cycles, thus evaluating the capital and running electricity costs. The obtained results show that the comparison between the two solutions is very open, and in the majority of cases, the advantages in terms of efficiency overcome the disadvantages due to the additional capital costs. For a rather low battery cost of 150 €/kWh, the total cost reduction moves from about 100–150 € up to 1500–2000 €, depending on the electricity cost, along the whole vehicle lifespan. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T17:46:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-688db795ba0e4c968e528e8d36531d14 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2624-8921 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T17:46:06Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Vehicles |
| spelling | doaj.art-688db795ba0e4c968e528e8d36531d142024-03-27T14:07:13ZengMDPI AGVehicles2624-89212023-12-0161719210.3390/vehicles6010003Battery Electric Vehicles: How Many Gears? A Technical–Economic AnalysisEmmanuele Bertucci0Francesco Bucchi1Massimo Ceraolo2Francesco Frendo3Giovanni Lutzemberger4DICI, University of Pisa, 56122 Pisa, ItalyDICI, University of Pisa, 56122 Pisa, ItalyDESTEC, University of Pisa, 56122 Pisa, ItalyDICI, University of Pisa, 56122 Pisa, ItalyDESTEC, University of Pisa, 56122 Pisa, ItalyThe large majority of electric cars have a single-speed gearbox, because electrified powertrains provide maximal power across a wide operating range, and single-speed simplifies construction and reduces capital costs. Nevertheless, multi-speed transmissions have also been developed for electric cars, and some of them have recently appeared as commercial products. This paper aims to compare, through some practical examples, solutions with single-speed and dual-speed transmissions. In particular, given the very smooth driving of electric cars, for dual-speed solutions, a dual-clutch gearbox was considered. Finally, a continuously variable transmission (CVT) was also used. Different solutions were analyzed from a technical–economic point of view, based on a simulation of the vehicle under standardized driving cycles, thus evaluating the capital and running electricity costs. The obtained results show that the comparison between the two solutions is very open, and in the majority of cases, the advantages in terms of efficiency overcome the disadvantages due to the additional capital costs. For a rather low battery cost of 150 €/kWh, the total cost reduction moves from about 100–150 € up to 1500–2000 €, depending on the electricity cost, along the whole vehicle lifespan.https://www.mdpi.com/2624-8921/6/1/3battery electric vehicleCVTdual-clutchefficiencygearboxtransmission |
| spellingShingle | Emmanuele Bertucci Francesco Bucchi Massimo Ceraolo Francesco Frendo Giovanni Lutzemberger Battery Electric Vehicles: How Many Gears? A Technical–Economic Analysis Vehicles battery electric vehicle CVT dual-clutch efficiency gearbox transmission |
| title | Battery Electric Vehicles: How Many Gears? A Technical–Economic Analysis |
| title_full | Battery Electric Vehicles: How Many Gears? A Technical–Economic Analysis |
| title_fullStr | Battery Electric Vehicles: How Many Gears? A Technical–Economic Analysis |
| title_full_unstemmed | Battery Electric Vehicles: How Many Gears? A Technical–Economic Analysis |
| title_short | Battery Electric Vehicles: How Many Gears? A Technical–Economic Analysis |
| title_sort | battery electric vehicles how many gears a technical economic analysis |
| topic | battery electric vehicle CVT dual-clutch efficiency gearbox transmission |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2624-8921/6/1/3 |
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