A hybrid electric vehicle uses multiple sources of energy that can be independently or all together used to propel the wheels. In the presented work, the vehicle propulsion controller (VPC) for a parallel heavy duty hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) model has been modified to manage the alternative power source in advance based on the forthcoming traffic information. The goal is to prepare the powertrain for the next power event by making more energy storage capacity to capture free energy via regenerative braking or store more energy for expected need. The method of preparation will be by managing the battery state of charge (SOC), which is a metal hydride battery for this study, to take advantage of opportunistic regeneration. Autonomie software was used to simulate parallel HEV models.;The results revealed that the proposed looking-ahead control strategy for a class 8 parallel hybrid heavy duty vehicle with an engine power of 410 kW had a substantial contribution in preparing the system for forthcoming power demand. The looking-ahead strategy employed in this study improved fuel economy from 0.5% on flat terrain to about 3% on mountain terrain. Moreover, a looking-ahead strategy can contribute significantly to maintaining adequate power for the vehicle on different terrain types. The engine power can be downsized (with looking-ahead strategy) therefore improving fuel economy up to 13% while maintaining adequate power over different terrain types. The battery energy capacity can be downsized (with looking-ahead strategy) by half while maintaining nearly the same benefits (i.e. fuel economy and adequate power) compared to the hybridization system without looking-ahead strategy. Since different routes types (i.e. flat, hilly and mountain terrains) were used to investigate the impact of the looking-ahead strategy on heavy duty parallel HEV, these results can generally be applied to many terrain and traffic situations.
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