Electrification of a Class 8 Heavy-Duty Truck Considering Battery Pack Sizing and Cargo Capacity

The design and performance optimization of fully electric trucks constitute an integral goal of the transport sector to meet climate emergency measures and local air quality requirements. Most studies in the literature have determined the optimum pack size based on economic factors, without accounting for the details of pack behavior when varying the size. In this paper, the effect of battery pack sizing and cargo capacity of a class 8, 41-ton truck on its overall energy performance and technical parameters of its powertrain is investigated. For this purpose, the proposed electric truck is designed and mathematically modelled using AVL CRUISE M software. The second-order equivalent circuit model is developed to predict the battery packs’ parameters. The proposed battery pack model is extracted from experimental analysis on SONY VTC6 lithium-ion batteries performed in the lab. The weight changes due to adding the battery packs to the truck are also estimated and have been taken into account. The mathematical model of the powertrain is simulated in the long-haul driving cycle considering different cargo capacities and battery pack sizes. The results of this study revealed that the battery pack voltage reached its minimum value when the maximum cargo capacity was applied for the 399 kWh battery pack. In addition, increasing the occupied cargo capacity from 10% to 100% resulted in an increase in the regenerative brake energy of up to 9.87 kWh, while changing the battery size imposed minimal impacts on regenerative brake energy recovery as well as energy consumption.