The powertrain of a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is more complex than the conventional powertrain.  Its performance depends on the optimal selections of engine, battery, motor and other electric units, as well as optimized transmission design. A HEV powertrain may have various configurations. For each configuration, size of engine, battery, and electric units varies according to the target vehicle’s specifications. The transmission needs to be designed accordingly. A design tool has been developed to quickly determine the powertrain configurations for given target vehicles, optimize the transmission designs, and to do the powertrain simulation for evaluating the powertrain’s capacity and performance. This tool was developed using Matlab.

Furthermore, effective product data sharing has positive impact on the quality, cost, and time cycle of the powertrain design. This project demonstrates an approach to effectively manage the data using product data management system so that the data can be shared effectively within the design teams. The powertrain design and simulatin tool has been integrated into a product data management system, which allows easy collection and access of the design data.