A novel electric drive description to bridge the gap between energetic and equivalent-circuit models

Abstract

A novel electric drive modeling approach is introduced to bridge the gap between computationally efficient energetic methods and highly detailed equivalent-circuit models. Unlike existing energetic models, which lack the granularity to capture motor currents and voltages, or equivalent-circuit models, which are computationally expensive, the proposed methodology achieves a balance of accuracy and efficiency. This is accomplished by combining an equivalent-circuit motor description with a phenomenological inverter model, supported by stator current reference lookup tables and a torque saturation process. These innovations enable accurate simulations with minimal input data requirements, making the model well-suited for electric vehicle early-stage design. Validation against experimental data from a Tesla Model 3 demonstrates the effectiveness of this approach for both single-motor and multiple-motor electric vehicle architectures.