Cost Optimal Design Strategy of Electric Drivetrains for Medium Heavy-Duty Vehicles Based on Product Development and Production Costs

Medium and heavy-duty vehicles form the backbone of logistic industry. However, the increase in the amount of freight as well as stringent emission norms are putting enormous pressure on the fleet operators. Additionally, due to the lack of industry standards the manufacturers are also not committing their fortunes over an evolving technology. Therefore, before we achieve a well-established and standardized methodology for the design of electric drivetrains for logistic vehicles, a sub-optimal, short term and still cost effective solution need to be devised that will serve as a precursor for the future of the industry. In general, electro- mobility is subject to high cost pressure due to the additional costs of the battery. In this case, the reduction of costs of other parts of the drivetrain plays an important role for the viability of this technology. This paper focuses on the identification of the cost- effective drivetrain variant for medium-heavy duty trucks. For this purpose, an appropriate method is required for the cost calculation during the stages of product development and production. Therefore, during this phase of technology evolution of electro-mobility, an innovative manufacturer-oriented cost calculation method is developed, evaluated and used to investigate the research question of which drivetrain variant is the most economical overall, considering the development and production cycle in a given scenario. The market of medium-heavy duty trucks is energy cost driven, but from the manufacturers perspective significant savings can be made by implementing an optimal drivetrain methodology. For this analysis, the suitable drivetrain concepts are compared based on the empirical data obtained from available industry standards. The results are also derived from a research project currently being undertaken at the Institute PEM of RWTH Aachen University and financed by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety.