A Brief Evaluation of Freewheeling Motor at P4 Position: Retrofit Approach to Electrification

Several approaches are taken towards the electrification of the future’s automotive fleet. This Paper explores a possibility for electrification of existing on-road vehicles with high residual value. Notion of this paper is that electrification of certain sectors of the vehicle fleet is economically feasible when existing vehicles are retrofitted with electric parts rather than being replaced with pure electric vehicles. Retrofit refers to addition of components which was not there during the time of manufacturing. The paper presents the benefits of retrofitting a “P0 hybrid” vehicle with a freewheeling motor at the P4 position. This Config is evaluated by a detailed simulation on CO2 savings and performance using MATLAB and AMESim. We try to contemplate the amount of modifications needed on the vehicle for retrofitting and summaries the benefits.