Comparison of Different Powertrain Configurations for Electric City Bus

This paper presents a comparison between different powertrain configurations in electric city buses. The comparison is carried out with the aid of modeling and simulation in the Autonomie vehicle simulation software. The aim of the presented research is to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the different powertrain configurations in terms of energy efficiency, powertrain losses and component design requirements. In this case, a powertrain configuration includes at least a battery system, inverter, traction motor, and also some configurations can include a gearbox, reduction gear or differential gear. General design requirements for the powertrain components were defined on the basis of the performance requirements in a typical city bus operation. The simulation results show that the powertrain configuration has notable impact on the energy consumption, and the distribution of losses in the powertrain.