Optimal Design of All-Wheel-Drive Hybrid Pick-Up Trucks

Both fuel economy and launching/towing performance are important for pick-up trucks. All-wheel-drive (AWD) and multimode operations are important to ensure efficient operations in a wide range of speeds and road loads. In this paper, a systematic methodology is developed and applied to the screening and evaluation of AWD multi-mode hybrid trucks. It is a four-step design process that uses automated modeling techniques, exhaustive search, and a near-optimal control strategy to obtain optimal designs. A case study was conducted to identify superior designs for an imagined hybrid electric Ford F-150 light truck.