Charged EVs Online energy management for PHEVs claims 30% improvement in fuel efficiency

Engineers at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) have developed a new online energy management system (EMS) that they say can improve PHEV fuel efficiency by more than 30%. In "Development and Evaluation of an Evolutionary Algorithm-Based Online Energy Management System for Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles," published in IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, Xuewei Qi and colleagues explain that improving the efficiency of current PHEVs is limited by shortfalls in their energy management systems (EMS), which control the power split between engine and battery. In general, existing EMS for PHEVs are either rule-based systems, which use a set of predefined rules, or optimization-based, which can adapt according to driving conditions and driver behavior. However, notes the UCR team, most systems have only limited adaptability to real-time information. "In reality, drivers may switch routes, traffic can be unpredictable, and road conditions may change, meaning that the EMS must source that information in real-time," Qi said.