Connectivity-Enhanced Route Selection and Adaptive Control for the Chevrolet Volt (Presentation): NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

Energy security, fuel cost and air quality concerns have been driving increased powertrain electrification in new vehicles. At the same time, ubiquitous availability of advanced vehicle telematics systems, such as OnStar, has made real-time information on driving routes, traffic and road topology readily accessible. Taken together, these trends offer a potential to increase powertrain efficiency,particularly in vehicles containing both a traction battery and a combustion engine. Such vehicles can leverage route-specific information to anticipate road loads and schedule power flows in the most efficient manner possible. In collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and General Motors (GM) are evaluating connectivity-enhancedroute selection and adaptive control techniques to even further increase energy efficiency in the Chevrolet Volt platform. This presentation will describe both simulation and testing results from energy prediction algorithms applied to the Volt over multiple real-world driving profiles. The results will highlight ideal scenarios for connectivity enhancements to further increase electrifiedvehicle energy savings.