SYNTHESIS, ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION OF DRIVE CONCEPTS

Dr.-Ing. Bartosch Czapnik

Assistent of the Group Research Powertrain
Volkswagen AG

INTRODUCTION
The following section describes a conception methodology that systematically investigates the
great potential variety of comprehensive drive concepts. The methodology is situated at a very
early phase of drive conception. It specifies numerous technologies that are then systematically
combined into drive concepts. The resulting concepts are then assessed regarding certain
requirements and constraints and an initial selection of concepts suitable for vehicle usage is
produced from this. Overall this methodology describes the very first step of a drive conception.

PROCEDURE IN METHODOLOGY
A technology library is used as the first input variable in the methodology. This library contains
individual technologies like, for example, an electric motor with properties like the average
efficiency and performance-specific variables [Figure 1]. The second input variable describes
requirements and constraints so that, for example, the maximum speed, acceleration time,
range and charging time that should be achieved are specified. In addition a base vehicle is
defined with which the requirements need to be reached and which provides a certain space for
the drive. As a result, the methodology returns all drive concepts that are conceivable on the
basis of the technology library and also indicates which drive concepts are suitable under the
set requirements for the base vehicle and which ones are unsuitable. By varying the
requirements, constraints and properties of stored technologies, investigations into the extent to
which these input variables need to change are, for example, possible so that certain drive
concepts are of interest for the vehicle application.

Figure 1: Procedure in methodology

The methodology consists of the three modules synthesis, analysis and evaluation. The task of
synthesis is to systematically combine the individual technologies in the library to form drive
concepts. In the analysis, the synthesised concepts are configured with regard to the set
requirements and constraints and the technical and economic properties are determined. Finally
the individual drive concepts are evaluated so that a comparison is made possible.

SYSTEMATIC SYNTHESIS OF DRIVE CONCEPTS

The main function of a vehicle drive is to set a vehicle in motion so that it can move with the
desired traction and at the desired speed. Starting with an available energy source, mechanical
energy is supplied to the vehicle via a drive energy chain. This complete system can be divided
into the three subsystems Energy, Infrastructure and Vehicle. The subsystem Energy
contains the available energy source [Figure 2]. The vehicle must contain at least the
mechanical energy as the vehicle should be moved. The drive energy chain can be divided both
between the vehicle and also the infrastructure. The system boundary between infrastructure
and vehicle can thus hold different positions which will be explained in more detail in the
following section.

Figure 2: Subsystems of a drive concept

On an abstract level of observation, five different drive elements are available to the drive
energy chain. These are energy transducers, storages, transformers and transmitters. Energy
transducers receive one specific type of energy at their input and release it again at their output
as another type. One example would be combustion engines that receive chemical energy and
output mechanical energy. Energy storages receive energy at a certain time and output it in the
same form at a later time. Energy transformers change the performance variables of an energy
type like, for example, a gearbox varies the torque and engine speed between its input and
output. Energy transmitters transfer a type of energy from one location to another. The fifth
drive element is energy sources that supply energy, but do not receive it so they only have an
output.
If we look at energy types that can be used for the drive, then nine different energy types are
essentially available on the basis of the outputs in the multi-digit kilowatt range. They are
mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, chemical, nuclear, thermal, electrical, magnetic and radiation
energy.

Storage
Transformer
Transmitter

Transducer

Output
MECH HYDR

PNEU

CHEM

THER

NUCL

ELEC

MAGN

RAD

MECH
HYDR
PNEU

Input

CHEM
ELEC

THER
NUCL

ELEK

Electric
motor

Battery

ELEC

MECH

ELEC
MAGN

Electricity ELEC

RAD
Energy sources

Figure 3: Technology library

From these nine energy types, a square matrix with nine lines and columns is generated. The
lines and columns are assigned to the individual energy types. The same ranking of energy

types is used in the lines from top to bottom and in the columns from left to right. Therefore the
corresponding fields in the lines and columns are assigned to the same energy type along the
matrix diagonal. In addition, there is a definition that the lines of the matrix describe input
energy types and the columns output energy types. Now we can enter characteristics of certain
drive elements in the individual fields of the matrix. Energy storages, transformers and
transmitters define the same energy type at the input and output. For this reason, they are
found along the matrix diagonal. All other boxes are distinguished between input and output
energy type. For this reason, only transducers are found there. The matrix is also expanded by
one line that is not assigned an input energy type, but instead only output energy types
according to the nine defined columns. Characteristics of the energy source drive element can
thus be collected within the fields in this line as they only have an output. This matrix reflects
the technology library in the end [Figure 3].
The advantage of a technology library structured in this way is that drive elements or
technologies can be accessed which is decisive for the systematic synthesis. Furthermore gaps
in the matrix can be identified and thus an extensive synthesis of all conceivable drive concepts
can be ensured as long as these gaps are also closed. You can also enter virtual technologies
that have not yet been developed. By estimating characteristics of a virtual technology, the
potential in the whole vehicle can be investigated at an early stage.
The aim of all drive concepts is supplying mechanical energy in the vehicle. In the first process
step of the systematic synthesis, all technology that supplies mechanical energy at the output is
picked. This search is very specific thanks to the structure of the library. The identified
technology is assigned to the mechanical energy. This morphological process continues from
these technologies. On the basis of the input energy type of each previously assigned
technology, these assigned technologies are then requested with specific access to the library.
The input energy type of the superordinate technology must always coincide with the output
energy type of the subordinate technology so that coupling is guaranteed. A tree structure is
produced by repeating the morphological process step on each technology of a level. A path is
only closed here if an energy source is assigned under an element. No further elements can be
assigned under an energy source due to the lack of input. A path between one energy source
and the mechanical energy describes a specific drive energy chain.

Figure 4: Example for synthesized energy chain

A drive energy chain still does not, however, describe a drive concept unless the system
boundaries are assigned. As previously mentioned, there are different possibilities for assigning
the system boundariess for a certain drive energy chain. For example, if we look at the energy
chain in Figure 4, the electricity is assigned to the subsystem Energy as the available energy
source and the mechanical energy to the subsystem Vehicle. If the elements battery charger,
li-ion battery and electric motor are placed in the vehicle, this corresponds with an abstracted
electric vehicle with an internal battery charger. If the elements from the vehicle subsystem are
now transferred step-by-step to the infrastructure subsystem and the battery charger is
removed in the first step, we will get an electric vehicle with an external battery charger. Both
concepts discussed so far describe a so-called storage-supplied drive. If, in the next step, the
battery is also moved to the infrastructure, we will have a mobile-supplied drive concept in
vehicle terms. This is supplied with energy from the infrastructure which is then converted into
mechanical energy and thus into movement of the vehicle. Examples of this would be inductionsupplied vehicles or vehicles that are supplied via overhead wires. In the final step of this
example, the electric motor is removed from the vehicle and added to the infrastructure

resulting in a vehicle that is driven directly by the infrastructure with mechanical energy. An
example of this externally driven drive concept would be a vehicle driven by linear motors
integrated into the roads.
Overall, using the systematic synthesis that results from the morphological combination of drive
elements and the systematic assignment of system boundaries, three types of drive concept are
determined:
Storage-supplied drive concepts
Mobile-supplied drive concepts
Externally driven drive concepts

ANALYSIS OF DRIVE CONCEPTS

Once drive concepts have been produced within the framework of the synthesis module, they
will be configured in the analysis module according to the set requirements and constraints and
the characteristics of the respective drive concepts will be determined.
Minimum and maximum requirements like top speed, acceleration times, climbing and starting
capability as well as charging time and range are set in a specific base vehicle and driving
cycle. Calculating the driving resistances allows us to determine the maximum power and the
energy requirement per route unit to ensure the requirements at the vehicle wheel for a specific
base vehicle and a selected driving cycle. These are then used as configuration variables.
Using the specific characteristics of the individual drive elements of a concept, characteristics
like efficiency, mass, space and costs are determined with the aid of the configuration variables.
The losses of the respective technologies used as well as the auxiliary consumers need to be
taken into consideration. The energy source used also has specific characteristics like costs
and CO2 emissions per energy unit so that overall on the basis of the specified requirements
and constraints characteristics like purchase costs, energy costs, CO2 emissions, drive space
requirement and mass are determined.
In the configuration of the infrastructure it is not, however, sufficient to dimension the technology
used according to the required performance and energy requirement variables of a drive
concept. Moreover, for storage-supplied concepts, the number of respective charging
technologies and, for mobile-supplied and externally driven concepts, the route to be equipped
and thus the respective resulting infrastructure expense need to be taken into consideration for
a whole infrastructure.
The traffic constraints of a certain traffic network must be defined for this. In the case of
storage-supplied infrastructures, the number of necessary charging technologies can, for
example, be roughly determined using an energy-based approach or a comprehensive
approach.
The energy-based approach evaluates the whole distance covered by vehicles in a defined
traffic network to ensure the resulting mobility requirement. Assuming that a freely definable
number of vehicles in the traffic network are equipped with the respective drive concept, the
total energy requirement to guarantee the annual distance covered can be calculated using the
efficiency of the drive. When specifying a certain utilisation rate of the charging infrastructure,
the necessary number of charging stations can be determined from the required total energy
requirement and the configured output of the charging technology. From this figure, the total
expense of the charging technologies for the infrastructure can be calculated.
The comprehensive approach is based on the idea that one charging station is required per
certain distance.
With this radius of action for a charging station, the necessary number of charging stations and
thus also the total expense for the infrastructure can be determined for a specific traffic network.
The energy-based and comprehensive approaches can supplement each other well so that
both define the minimum requirement of charging stations.

With mobile-supplied and externally driven concepts the route-tied technology can be
configured using the definition of the route types of a traffic network since the costs of such a
technology essentially depends on the output and on the distance to be covered. A route type
defines a route distance, lane number and guide speed with the latter also determining the
power to be supplied per route distance. Overall a configuration can be made for the whole
traffic network from which the total expense for the mobile-supplied or externally driven
infrastructure can be derived.
The total expense of the infrastructure of a storage-supplied, mobile-supplied or externally
driven concept can ultimately be added via an investment calculation as a surcharge to the
energy costs so that driving costs per distance finally result when the total driving distance of all
used vehicles is taken into consideration.
Once the characteristics of the drive concepts have been defined, they need to be evaluated in
the last methodology module. On the one hand, drive concepts that are not suitable for vehicle
usage under the set requirements and constraints can be filtered by, for example, the space
provided for the drive in the base vehicle not being sufficient. On the other, the concepts that
are not filtered can be shown in a rank list depending on the degree of fulfilment and the
weighting of certain criteria. In general, the evaluation is a multi-criteria decision problem that
can be solved with any methods like, for example, the cost-utility analysis. There should be no
deepening of evaluation methods, instead they should be highlighted in the following concept
comparisons using three application examples.

INVESTIGATION OF TRADITIONAL AND ALTERNATIVE DRIVES

In the first application example of the methodology, the focus is on the costs of petrol, diesel,
natural gas, battery and fuel cell drives. The two application cases of a short-distance and a
long-distance vehicle are distinguished with regard to requirements and constraints [Table 1].

Table 1: Definition of two application cases

When depicting the current state of the art, current technology costs and the current energy and
fuel costs in Germany in the technology library, on the one hand, drive-related purchase costs
result and, on the other, energy costs. Infrastructure expenses are not explicitly taken into
consideration here, but instead in the energy and fuel costs. If the purchase costs are taken as
an investment of 10 years without residual value and a constant interest rate of 8%, annual
depreciation and interest, which are converted to distance-related costs using the annual
distance driven by a vehicle, will result so that distance-related total costs are ultimately
obtained. In Table 2, the vehicles are listed according to their effect on the total costs. Both in
short-distance and long-distance vehicles, combustion engine drives have the lowest total
costs. The slight advantage of natural gas drives cannot compete with diesel and petrol drives,

however, due to the less developed filling station infrastructure. The alternative drives have a
clear margin in the total costs although battery drives cannot be included in long-distance
vehicle usage due to the available powertrain volume.

Table 2: Resulting total costs - state of the art

If forecasts for 2020 are made on the basis of meetings with experts and studies and compiled
in Table 3, the rankings of the drives for both application examples are shown as in Table 4.
The battery drive can be depicted by further developing the technology and increasing the
efficiency of the complete drive in the long-distance vehicle.

Table 3: Predictions for 2020

In short-distance vehicles, the battery drive shows the maximum economy followed by the
natural gas drive. Petrol, fuel cell and diesel drives are close together in the short-distance
vehicle. In the long-distance vehicle, the combustion engine drives remain in the top placings
with the natural gas drive having a clear advantage. The alternative drives remain
comparatively uneconomical in long-distance vehicles. Fuel cell drives are generally seen and
communicated as long-distance drives. However, in 2020, they will not yet be competitive with
regard to costs. Overall it is shown that natural gas drives should gain in significance due to
their high level of economy in the total costs.

Table 4: Resulting total costs - forecast 2020

UNCONVENTIONAL DRIVES IN CITY CARS

In the second application example, compressed-air, hydraulic, capacitor and flywheel drives are
compared with a battery drive in a city car as regards efficiency and range in the urban part of
the NEDC (ECE). Table 5 shows the requirements and constraints for the underlying city car.

Table 5: Requirements and constraints for a city car

The compressed-air drive has a relatively high level of usability with a limit range of 77 km
[Figure 5], which could be sufficient for use as a city vehicle. However, the efficiency of the
compressed-air drive is very poor as the energy consumption is over three times as high as in a
battery drive due to the high compression and expansion losses. The hydraulic and flywheel
drive provide better efficiency than the compressed-air drive due to fewer losses in the
complete drive. The efficiency depends, however, greatly on the targeted maximum range that
is only producible up to a limit range of 7.8 km in particular with the hydraulic drive in contrast to
49 km in the flywheel drive. The hydraulic storage system consisting of a low- and a highpressure reservoir has low volumetric and gravimetric energy densities so that the reservoir
volume and the reservoir mass increase greatly as the range rises. For the whole hydraulic
drive, this results in a rising spiral in terms of drive mass and volume since a performance and
possibly energy-related tune-up of all components in the powertrain along with the storage is
required to guarantee the respective requirements (range and performance) due to the
increasing driving resistance caused by the larger storage system. This spiral causes the limit
range to be reached more quickly. Since the volumetric and gravimetric energy density figures
of a flywheel energy storage are greater, there is a smaller spiral and thus a higher limit range
with the flywheel drive. In the case of the flywheel drive, the influence of gyroscopic forces on
the overall dynamics of the vehicle may need to be taken into consideration, however. The
capacitor drive provides similarly good efficiency as the battery drive up to a limit range of 30
km since the complete drive is the same except for the storage. The low limit range is also
down to the relatively low energy density of the double-layer capacitor used. Overall the battery

drive is best suited to this vehicle concept with regard to efficiency and the limit range of 320
km.

Figure 5: Energy consumption vs. range in ECE

In principle, all drives except for the compressed-air drive would be suitable for use as a
secondary drive in a hybrid vehicle in terms of efficiency. The secondary drive in mild hybrid
vehicles, for example, provides no range and in full hybrid vehicles only very short ranges. For
plug-in hybrid vehicles, the battery drive would be above all suitable according to the results
because it provides the highest range. If a vehicle concept from a higher segment was used as
a base vehicle, only the battery drive would probably come into question for a plug-in hybrid
vehicle as the limit ranges would be considerably lower due to higher driving resistances. For
series usage in a hybrid vehicle, criteria like, for example, the economy of the drives would also
need to be assessed in the end.

MOBILE-SUPPLIED AND EXTERNALLY DRIVEN DRIVE CONCEPTS

In the last application example, the question of whether mobile-supplied or externally driven
drive concepts would be economic assuming that all cars use the respective drive technology is
looked at using car traffic in Germany as an example. In addition to the previously stored
technologies, models of route-tied transfers (linear motor system, induction system and
overhead wire system) are kept in the technology library with the corresponding infrastructure
and vehicle-related part elements.
Research on route-specific costs has shown that overhead wire systems incur approx. 2
million, induction systems approx. 6 million and linear motor systems approx. 8 million in
costs per double kilometre. Since introduction of route-tied technology in the overall traffic
network would be a long-term plan, the investigation time would be set to 2020 in this case. It is
assumed here that the costs of route-tied technology will remain constant from today to 2020. A
cost increase would be compensated by the scales effect that results from project planning for a
very extensive traffic network. In addition, useful values for length and lane number scaling of
the route-tied technologies are considered. The previous forecasts for 2020 apply to all other
technologies.
To cover a certain usage bandwidth of these drives, the two application cases of short- and
long-distance vehicles will be used from [Table 1]. The requirements and constraints for
configuring the vehicle subsystem are thus defined. To configure the infrastructure subsystem,
a traffic network together with usage profile must also be set. The different drive concepts
should be configured under the assumption that the whole car traffic structure is configured with
the respective transfer source and all cars in Germany use this technology for individual
transport. Table 6 shows the car population and the kilometres driven in Germany in 2010. For

2020, it should be assumed that the vehicle population and the annual distance driven in
Germany will stagnate as forecast. Table 6 also shows the German traffic network in 2010 with
division according to route type. Depending on route type, the length, the percentage share of
the complete traffic network and the share in the distance driven of all cars are also shown. A
stagnation is also presumed for the traffic network until 2020.

Table 6: Car statistics and traffic network in Germany

The route-tied infrastructures will be configured on the basis of the German traffic network. This
respectively results in infrastructure costs that are written off linearly and without residual value
using an investment calculation with a usage period of 20 years and an interest rate of 8% in
the form of an energy cost surcharge. After configuring the complete drive concepts, driverelated purchase costs result on the one hand and, on the other, driving costs that both give us
the sum of the energy costs and the described energy cost surcharge. Figure 6 shows the
drive-related purchase costs compared with the driving costs for the three mobile-supplied and
externally driven drive concepts as well as also the result of the 2020 forecast for the
aforementioned combustion engine drive concepts. The figure illustrates the cost spread
resulting from the two application cases in a related area.

Figure 6: Purchase costs vs. driving costs - forecast 2020

Since the mobile-supplied and externally driven drives of the vehicle-internal drive is technically
less complex than with combustion engine drives, the purchase costs are lower. However, the
infrastructure costs are set off against the driving costs so they are considerably higher than the
driving costs for the combustion engine drives.

The driving costs show that, despite the very optimistic assumption that all cars will use the
respective drive technology and thus all contribute usage-specifically to the infrastructure costs,
mobile-supplied and externally driven drive concepts would not be economic in Germany in all
application cases in contrast to the observed storage-supplied drive concepts. This is despite
the fact that Germany has a high vehicle density and usage with a relatively compact
infrastructure, which benefits the investment in mobile-supplied and externally driven drive
concepts. It is not however sufficient under the set constraints to depict comparable economy.
However, the overhead wire concept comes relatively close to the storage-supplied drives in
terms of the effect on driving costs, but still are higher than the total costs of the combustion
engine drive concepts in 2020 [Table 4].
The expense of equipping a complete traffic network with route-tied technology would be
relatively difficult to achieve although a focus on long-distance traffic would be conceivable.
Particularly the long-distance traffic that comprises the B-road and motorway route types only
accounts for 7.6% of the total traffic network with 47% of the total car mileage in Germany
[Table 6]. This means a large part of the distance driven could be covered with route-tied drives
at low expense. The Figure 7 shows the effect on the classification of the mobile-supplied and
externally driven drives with regard to the drive-related purchase costs and the driving costs
when the infrastructure is reduced to long-distance traffic.

Figure 7: Limitation to motorways an B-roads

The reduction of the traffic network leads to a reduction in driving costs so that the overhead
wire drive concept even reaches the middle driving cost area of the combustion engine drives.
The induction and linear motor drive concept also comes very close to the driving costs of the
petrol drive. However, a direct comparison of the drives is now no longer possible since a
vehicle can only use the route-tied drive on long-distance journeys. A combination with, for
example, a battery drive in the form of a hybrid drive would be conceivable to guarantee
unlimited individual mobility. For the battery drive, only a limited range would also be necessary
that could be restored on long-distance journeys, for example, by an overload at the wheel
using recuperation. This concept may not only be interesting for cars, but also for lorries since
goods transport is constantly gaining significance.

SUMMARY
Overall a methodology for the very first step in the drive conception has been presented here.
By means of a systematic approach, extensive drive concepts automated on the basis of freely
chosen technologies can be created and investigated. The application examples presented
show the bandwidth of storage-supplied, mobile-supplied and externally driven drive concepts
that can be investigated taking various forecasts and scenarios into consideration.