Effect of battery capacity on the performance of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) have been identified as one of the most promising technologies of the future. They differ from hybrid electric vehicles due to their ability to draw electric power from the utility grid. The proper choice of energy storage system with respect to cost and capacity is one of the main design challenges of such vehicles. This paper presents an investigation on the effects of the battery capacity on the fuel economy of a series powertrain PHEV. The simulations are done using the Powertrain System Analysis Toolkit (PSAT) software package.