Den ökande efterfrågan på laddbara bilar medför även en ökad efterfrågan på vissa metaller som krävs i framställande av tillhörande batterier. Efterfrågan på metaller som litium och kobolt ökar drastiskt. Samtidigt associeras utvinning av litium och kobolt med ett flertal hållbarhetsproblem som främst påverkar redan sårbara människor. För att minska de ohållbara konsekvenserna av råvaruextraktion är en möjlighet att öka andelen återvunnet material i nyproduktionen av litiumjonbatterier. Visserligen är återvinning en viktig komponent i batteritillverkningen, men det är ej totalt okomplicerat att skifta produktionen från nyutvunnen metall till återvunnen. Dessa svårigheter kan härledas till elbilsmarknadens exponentiella ökning i omfång vilket kräver mer metall för produktion än vad som kan mötas av återvunnet material.  Denna studie utvecklar och presenterar matematiska modeller i Microsoft Excel som uppskattar beräknad efterfrågan av nybruten litium och kobolt från år 2022 till 2050 i litium- jonbatterifabriken Northvolt Ett i Skellefteå. Modellerna baseras på antaganden från tidigare studier vilka tolkas i en litteraturgenomgång. Flertalet alternativa scenarion i återvinningsandelar, metallintensitet per energilagringsenhet och framtida batteriteknologi är samtliga konsistenta med litteraturgenomgången och brukas i beräkningarna. Resultaten visar att det, oavsett återvinningsandel och metallintensifiering, finns ett kontinuerligt behov av nyextraktion av litium för att möta efterfrågan vid Northvolt Ett under hela tidsperioden. Nybrytning av kobolt är enligt modelleringen som längst nödvändigt till år 2048. Dessutom, om högre återvinning kan uppnås, eller till och med en utfasning av kobolt i batteriproduktionen, kan behovet av brytning av kobolt för batteriproduktion vid Northvolt Ett nollställas redan 2030. Resultaten visar enhälligt att åtgärder som metallintensifiering och återvinning ej är tillräckligt för att undvika beroende av ny brytning av litium för batteriproduktion, men har motsatt effekt för behovet av nybruten kobolt. / The rising demand for chargeable vehicles entails a rising demand for certain metals needed in the manufacturing of the vehicles’ appurtenant batteries. The demand for metals such as lithium and cobalt are growing drastically. At the same time, the extraction of lithium and cobalt is associated with numerous sustainability issues that primarily affect the already vulnerable. To diminish the unsustainable consequences of primary commodity extraction; recycling is seen as a way of decreasing primary metal in lithium-ion battery production in favour of recycled materials. Admittedly, recycling is an important component of the battery industry. However, there are difficulties in substituting primary metal for recycling. These difficulties come down to the exponential growth of the electric vehicle market which demands more metal for production than can be met by batteries recycled at the end of life. As well as providing secondary commodities for battery production it is important that end of life electric vehicle batteries are recycled in order to prevent harmful pollution caused by landfill.  The study develops and presents mathematical models in Microsoft Excel that estimates the projected demand for primary metal between the years of 2022 and 2050 in the lithium-ion vehicle battery production plant Northvolt Ett in Skellefteå, Sweden. The models are based on assumptions from earlier work retrieved from a literature review. Several alternative scenarios in recycling rates, metal intensity per energy storage unit and battery technology in the future all consistent with the literature review are used in the calculations. The results show that regardless of recycling rates and metal intensifying rates there is a need for continuous extraction of primary lithium for electric vehicle battery production at Northvolt Ett during the entire modelled period. Nonetheless, extraction of primary cobalt will at most be needed until 2048. Additionally, if higher recycling rates are adopted or even a phase out of cobalt in production, the need for mining cobalt for battery production at Northvolt Ett could be diminished as early as 2030. The results clarify that decreasing the amount of lithium in batteries and recycling is not enough to avoid a dependence on primary sources as production rates grow, but this could however be the case for cobalt.

In order to control the energy consumed by vehicles for crossing signalized intersections, this project designs and tests a speed guidance energy-saving strategy for signalized intersections, taking drivers’ bounded rationality into consideration. This research achieves speed guidance by developing theoretical foundation of speed guidance, dividing scenarios for practise of speed guidance, and calculating optimal trajectories for vehicles. As for influence of bounded rationality, this research categorizes all drivers into three different types: aggressive drivers, normal drivers and conservative drivers. Numerical simulation of this research is focuses on a single intersection, with three traffic saturation level, represented by 346, 519 and 692 vehicles per hour. Considering the foreseeable popularization of electric cars (EV) in the close future, proportion of EV is also taken as a variable, and experiments are carried separately at three milestones of EV proportion: 0%, 30%, and 60%. The findings suggest that aggressive drivers benefit the most from the speed guidance in energy saving, and speed guidance does lest benefit to normal drivers. Both drivers’ bounded rationality and high traffic volume could lead to increase of energy consumption, while providing specifically modified speed guidance is able to achieve satisfying reductions to these effects. With increase of EVs’ proportion in the traffic flow and drop of overall energy consumption, effect of the guidance becomes comparatively worse than the previous non-EV performance of 7% to 11%, while remaining to be effective to cut off overall energy consumption by 5% to 8%. This research is able to improve normal speed guidance with more accurate and practicable guidance information for drivers in current traffic environment.

This thesis demonstrates a practical implementation of a sensorless permanent magnet synchronousmotor (PMSM) drive for vehicle propulsion. The main design parameters and overall properties of themotor drive are derived for the case of an on-board electric powertrain as a substitute to the lift shuttle indownhill (DH) mountain biking.The theory behind field oriented control (FOC) for sensorless PMSMs is analyzed in some detail.Controller-inverter hardware and software are designed and prototyped in accordance with the deriveddesign parameters. Initial tuning and testing in a test bench environment is described. The powertrain isfinally installed on a test bike and tested on an incline. It is found that the performance of the controllerinvertercomplies with the target design parameters.

Εlectric vehicles are replacing the internal combustion engine vehicles rapidly and they will dominate the market completely in the next years. The amount of energy and power needed to support this new technology is huge. This will increase the already high electricity demand of our societies. The electric vehicles can provide a solution by using them to transfer energy to any other vehicles or infrastructure in combination with electricity management. This can be achieved by controlling the electric vehicle chargers and by knowing the exact consumption of the other vehicles or infrastructures. In Dansmästaren, Uppsala, there is a parking garage with 30 Charge Amps Aura charging stations. The same type of charger has been used in order to examine if it is possible to extract and update data through programming, as well as its functions regarding Vehicle-to-everything (V2X). This thesis presents two Python scriptswhere the first is used to update different functions of the charger and the secondto get high resolution electricity data and the energy consumption of the charger.The collected data is stored in two MySQL database every 30 seconds for future use. The data that can be updated by the user immediately, from anywhere and at any time. Similarly, the data collection has shown that different charging patterns exist and they can be observed by using the data that are generated and saved in the databases.

The growing population of cities and the rise of e-commerce are increasing the transportation of both goods and people. This can generate problems such as traffic jams, increased pollution, and lower living standards for citizens. To reduce the negative impacts, a change in last mile mobility could be made, replacing traditional combustion vehicles with electric ones or, ideally, with bikes and cargo bikes.  This thesis examines the case of the Swedish cities of Gävle and Uppsala, trying to explain how the last mile affects the lives of their inhabitants, if and why electric vehicles and cargo bikes are implemented (or not), and how authorities can promote their use. For this purpose, after a literature review, some questions were developed, and seven city managers were interviewed: five from Gävle and two from Uppsala.  The study shows that city managers are aware of the impacts that the last mile, and mobility in general, has on its inhabitants, and of the need for a shift towards a more sustainable mobility. Despite this awareness, policy makers are not doing everything possible to accelerate the transition. According to city managers, both the public and private sector advocate more for a change of energy source (from combustion to electric vehicles) rather than a model change using bikes. In addition, the study shows the opportunities that the new model based on non-traditional vehicles can offer and the barriers that prevent its implementation. Finally, different measures that could make cities more sustainable are proposed.

This project investigates the viability of using reconditioned batteries, which have lost part of their original capacity while powering electric vehicles (EVs), to minimize the expenses of fast-charging infrastructures under the three charging scenarios where fast-charging mode is likely to be needed the most. The analysis is conducted for the Spanish scenario and considers the retail electricity tariff that best suits the requirements of a FCS. The economic analysis is performed on an annual basis and is tackled with an optimization algorithm, formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming problem and run on MATLAB. The expected lifetime of the ESS, being made of reused automotive cells, is estimated with a semi-empirical approach, using an iterative process and implemented in MATLAB. A sensitivity analysis is conducted on three input parameters that were identified to have a considerable impact on the system design and performance.   Overall, results show that with current figures energy storage integration in FCSs is viable as it effectively reduces the infrastructure expenses in all scenarios. Peak-shaving is identified as the main source of cost savings while demand shifting is not effective at all. The latter is further discussed in the sensitivity analysis and some considerations are elaborated. The most profitable scenario for storage integration is the case of a fast-charger located in a urban environment while, surprisingly, the lowest cost savings are obtained in the highway case. The sensitivity analysis illustrates the impact and effects that electricity prices and specific cost of both the power converter and the second-life batteries produce on the optimal system design. Moreover, charging demand profiles are deeply analyzed and their main implications highlighted.

A range extender in a battery electric vehicle supplements the existing drive system as an add-on module. Range extenders can comprise of any combination of conventional fuel, battery or fuel cell driven modules. The idea of a sub-system changes with the type of range extender. In this work, hydrogen generation is studied, a fuel is used to power the range extender via a fuel cell.The thesis presents the work in progress for development of the sub-system for a range extender based on on-board production of hydrogen for automobiles. Several aspects of chemistry play equally pivotal role in control, hassle-free operation and safety of the system. Aftertreatment of the fuel by-products is the notorious issue that limits the reusing the reactor effecting the range extender. Along with this, reducing the reaction time with minimal usage of fuel is investigated. Both of these pressing issues are resolved correspondingly to an extent with the addition of several chemicals. In addition, with the help of characterization techniques, a robust circular economy outlook of the range extender system has been initiated. / En distansförlängare i ett eldrivet fordon kompletterar det befintliga drivsystemet som en tilläggsmodul. Distansförlängaren kan vara olika kombinationer av konventionella bränsle-, batteri- och bränslecelldrivna moduler. Utformningen av de övriga delarna av undersystemet beror på vilken distansförlängare som används. I detta arbete drivs distansförlängaren av en bränslecell, bränslet till bränslecellen genereras i distansförlängaren. Avhandlingen presenterar det pågående arbetet för utvecklingen av undersystemet hos en distansförlängare. Undersystemet baseras på ombordsproduktion av väte för bilar. Flera aspekter av kemi spelar en lika viktig roll i kontroll, problemfri drift och säkerhet. Efterbehandling av bränslets biprodukter är det ständiga problemet som begränsar reaktorns återanvändbarhet vilket påverkar distansförlängaren. Tillsammans med detta undersöks minskning av reaktionstiden med minimal användning av bränsle. Båda dessa pressande problem löses i en utsträckning med tillsatsen av flera kemikalier. Dessutom har en robust cirkulärekonomisk syn på distansförlängaren utvecklats med hjälp av olika karakteriseringstekniker.

Currently, wide bandgap semiconductor devices feature increased efficiency, higher current handling capabilities, and higher reverse blocking voltages than silicon devices while recent fabrication advances have them drawing near to the marketplace. However these new semiconductors are in need of new packaging that will allow for their application in several important uses including hybrid electrical vehicles, new and existing energy sources, and increased efficiency in multiple new and existing technologies. Also, current power module designs for silicon devices are rife with problems that must be enhanced to improve reliability. This thesis introduces new packaging that is thermally resilient and has reduced mechanical stress from temperature rise that also provides increased circuit lifetime and greater reliability for continued use to 300°C which is within operation ratings of these new semiconductors. The new module is also without problematic wirebonds that lead to a majority of traditional module failures which also introduce parasitic inductance and increase thermal resistance. Resultantly, the module also features a severely reduced form factor in mass and volume.

This thesis investigates the feasibility of using Silicon Carbide (SiC)-based multiphase inverters (MPIs) for transportation electrification applications. The research begins with a comprehensive review on the state-of-the-art of MPIs, focusing on voltage source inverters (VSIs) and nine-switch inverters (NSIs), with five-, six-, and nine-phase configurations. The quantitative and qualitative analyses demonstrate that the six-phase VSI is the most promising topology, offering reduced DC-capacitor requirements, lower cabling cost, and higher fault tolerance capability while maintaining the same efficiency and power device count of a three-phase VSI. The feasibility of the SiC-based six-phase inverter is further investigated at the vehicle level, where a vehicle model is developed to study the energy consumption under different drive cycles. The resulting indicate an 8% improvement in vehicle mileage and fuel economy of the SiC-based six-phase inverter compared to its Si-based counterpart. This thesis also examines the current and voltage stresses on the DC-bus capacitor in two-level six-phase VSIs. The study considers two configurations of load/winding spatial distribution: symmetric and asymmetric. Consequently, analytical formulas for the DC-bus capacitor current and voltage ripples are derived. Furthermore, simple capacitor sizing rules in six-phase VSIs with different load configurations are provided. The accuracy of the derived formulas is verified by simulation and experimental testing, and their boundary conditions are identified. Six-phase VSI supplying symmetric loads was found to yield the smallest capacitor size. Based on the foregoing technology review and analyses, a holistic design methodology for a 100 kW SiC-based six-phase traction inverter for an electric vehicle application is presented. The proposed methodology considers the device power level, where discrete SiC MOSFETs are utilized, and the DC-capacitor sizing, where a multi-objective optimization algorithm is proposed to find the most suitable capacitor bank. Mechanical and thermal design constraints are also explored to deliver a compact housing with an integrated coolant channel. The resultant inverter design from the proposed electrical-thermal-mechanical design methodology is prototyped and experimentally tested, demonstrating a 7% reduction in DC-capacitor volume and 21% reduction in cabling cost when compared to conventional three-phase inverters of the same volt-ampere rating. The peak power density of the prototype inverter is 70 kW/L, demonstrating a compact design. Besides, the proposed design is benchmarked against commercial six-phase inverter models, whereby the competitiveness of the proposed design is highlighted. Finally, the unique control aspects of six-phase electric motor drives are investigated to identify suitable controls strategies for various operating conditions. The study places special emphasis on high-speed operation and evaluates several overmodulation techniques. An adaptive flux-weakening control algorithm is also proposed for the six-phase motor drive, which significantly improves the DC-bus voltage utilization of the inverter when used in conjunction with overmodulation. Overall, this thesis provides a comprehensive study of SiC-based six-phase traction inverters and proposes a holistic design methodology that considers electrical, thermal, and mechanical aspects. The results demonstrate the feasibility and advantages of SiC-based six-phase traction inverters for electric vehicle applications. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Electric cars are continuously challenged to meet regulatory mandates that become stricter by the day. This is driven by the need for a clean, reliable, affordable, and sustainable transportation system. In this research, a novel, more reliable, and cost-effective power control unit (PCU) is proposed. The PCU manages the power flow regulation between the battery and the motor(s). The proposed PCU employs the same number of devices as a traditional counterpart, yet in a more modular architecture that doubles the safety factor compared to the standard design. In fault scenarios where the traditional PCU would fail, the proposed PCU would continue operating at half power, allowing the driver and passengers to reach a safe destination before the car is repaired. Extensive analyses were undertaken to identify an optimal design in terms of performance, size, and cost. Then, an engineering prototype is constructed and tested on an electric drivetrain testbed. Finally, the prototype is benchmarked against commercial competitors in the market to establish its economical feasibility.

<p>  </p> <p>As consumer adoption and total energy consumption of electric vehicles continues to rapidly increase, it is important to develop comprehensive system modeling frameworks that consider the complex interactions of their mechanical, electrical, and thermal subsystems to guide component technology development. This thesis studies the influence of cabin glass properties on the performance of an electric vehicle thermal system and overall cabin design considerations. The work first builds a generic long-range electric vehicle dynamic thermal system model while considering the system architecture, component sizing, control scheme, and glass properties. This comprehensive system model is used to assess the influence of cabin glass radiative properties on vehicle performance. The system model incorporates simplified models for all salient components in the electric traction drive, cabin HVAC, and battery subsystems, and uses a higher fidelity cabin thermal model that is able to capture the individual properties of the cabin glass used in the vehicle. To study the cabin model in isolation, a heat-up scenario is used to find that a cabin air temperature reduction of 8 °C through the use of different glass properties alone. Additionally, the cabin model is run repeatedly to produce a large data set that is trained using a machine learning regression model. This surrogate regression model that is used to reduce the computational time allowing for fast studies of glass properties and build an application engineering tool. The overall system performance is then evaluated under a dynamic NEDC drive cycle which is repeated until battery depletion to determine a vehicle range. A system validation is done on the HVAC subsystem by using steady-state thermodynamic analysis and comparing to the dynamic system model. This results in good agreement between four different subsystem modeling approaches. The system model is used to study five different glazing design cases, each corresponding to different transmission and reflection properties of the glass, by predicting their impact on the vehicle range. The cases span all theoretically possible glass properties while also enabling inspection of practical glass technologies that are available or under development to be adopted in modern electric vehicles. The influence of glass on vehicle range is then further compared at various locations across the United States to understand and illustrate the effects of ambient conditions and solar load. The system model predicts a vehicle range of 188.5 miles under a high solar loading scenario typical for Phoenix, AZ using traditional glass properties, which increases to a range of 221.6 miles using high-performance glass properties, representing a significant potential gain of 33.1 miles using technologies available on the market today. Under this same loading scenario, the glass properties at their extreme physical limits could theoretically affect the vehicle range by up to 92.5 miles. The influence of the glass properties is location-specific, and the model predicts that using the same glass at different locations can affect the range of vehicle by up to 100.8 miles for traditional glass properties and 73.4 miles for high-performance glass properties. </p>