A comparison study of range-extended engines for electric vehicle based on vehicle simulator

Electric vehicles have several disadvantages compared to conventional vehicles, such as
their road ability and vehicle weight. To overcome these problems, range-extended
engine technology has been developed. A range extender is a generator set that consists
of an internal combustion engine coupled with a generator that operates when it is
required. A vehicle simulator was deployed to compare the performance of three types
of range-extended engines i.e. 1-cylinder 389 cc, 1-cylinder 494 cc and 2-cylinder 988
cc gasoline engines. The best type chosen was afterwards to be coupled with an electric
vehicle. The performance data of each internal combustion engine was collected using
experiment and simulation data. Two types of driving cycle, the Federal Test Procedure
cycle and Artemis Rural Road cycle, were chosen to compare the optimum road ability
of the vehicle. The result shows that the 2-cylinder 988 cc range-extended engine has
the best performance, with an electrical motor energy consumption decrease of up to
83.26%, fuel consumption increase for the range-extended engine of up to 3.91 L/km,
and a road ability increase of up to 232.79% compared to a pure electric vehicle.