Ideas behind the concept and approach

• The vehicle user and user’s needs are the centre of the development process and for the use of the electric vehicle. This will be done by utilising the new dimension that is offered by connectivity and access to big data. The key element is to acquire thorough knowledge of how vehicles are actually being used, and especially in relation to the surrounding conditions and infrastructure that may strongly influence actual vehicle performance and user satisfaction. This opens up an unlimited number of data combinations that will be a strong benefit to optimisation for the development and the use of future electric vehicles and thus the need for a means to deal with these amounts of data;
• Ensure optimal electric and thermal management on vehicle level by means of exchanging information with the cloud about the thermal and energy consumption relevant characteristics such as route, destination, speed, state of charge, state of health and …. A cloud based framework/platform combines this information with other data (maps, traffic, weather forecast, …) and calculates the most optimal strategy for efficient energy and thermal management and sends this information back to the vehicle. The VCU is also calculating optimal strategies, but not with the more precise data and information from the cloud. Thus, the VCU uses the cloud information to supplement its own control strategy on vehicle level and route based on driver preferences, the available infrastructure along the route(s) and the real-time and predicted traffic situation and weather conditions.This leads to the following novel functionalities:- Reliable prediction of the electric driving range, travel time and time of arrival
  – Reliable prediction of the most economic route (Eco-routing);
  – Support to the driver regarding the most economic (or comfortable) driving profile (Eco-driving) under all ambient conditions and traffic situations;
  – Reliable determination of the most optimal charging profile for each mission, and the actual traffic situations and weather conditions along the route (Smart Fast Charging);
  – Reliable planning of charging stops and charging slots based on real time information from cloud services about location and availability (Assured Charging)
• Utilise the knowledge of actual use cases and load profiles by utilising this knowledge to derive lean electric powertrain architectures composed of rightsized components and systems and integration thereof both on hardware and software level. The latter is referring to operation and means that the vehicle’s VCU, assisted by information from the cloud, now has additional information needed to achieve the optimal and most efficient energy and thermal management on vehicle level. The rightsizing of the EV powertrain architecture and the underlying components and systems will have a large impact on vehicle cost and pave the way to further cost reductions by mass production.
• Implementation of advanced and rightsized hardware (TRL 5/6 -> 7), which is particularly needed to achieve the electric and thermal control advantages. This comprises hardware that is developed in CEVOLVER (advanced heat pump and thermal energy storage device), in EVOLVE cluster projects, in other GV-01-2018 projects and elsewhere, which matches the user centric development approach described in section 1.3.1.Altogether this results in affordable electric vehicles which are reliable, energy efficient and attractive from a user’s point of view. Especially novel functionalities like Reliable range prediction, Assured Charging and Smart Fast Charging will help solve the range anxiety perception and greatly increase user confidence in electric vehicles.