Electronic system integration for hybrid and electric vehicles

Hybrid and electric vehicles add more complication to the electronics architecture design of a passenger vehicle since the powertrain requires additional components such as battery and motor controllers. Functions such as regenerative breaking must be integrated into current vehicle safety systems such as ESP, ABS and EPB. The large currents flows within components such as electric motors make it an electrically noisy environment and therefore extra consideration should be given to the effects of such noise on the control system. The controller area network is the standard communication protocol used within the automotive industry for allowing electronic control units to share information easily. However, to save costs and enhance system safety, a number of additional networking protocols are emerging such as LIN and FlexRay. Issues with CAN, LIN and FlexRay with respect to hybrid and electric vehicles are discussed