Design and energy efficiency analysis of a pure fuel cell vehicle for Shell eco racer

The target of Shell Eco-marathon competition of vehicle is to drive a fixed distance with the lowest quantity of fuel. To win the competition, the fuel cell-powered propulsion system needs to be ultra efficient since the fuel cell system and transmission system are the key effects on the performance of the fuel cell-powered propulsion system. In this study, a high-efficiency fuel cell propulsion system has been designed and integrated in a prototype vehicle to participate the Shell Eco-marathon Asia 2018 race. To achieve that, the vehicle dynamic is modeled to make the selection of the key components, and some experiments have been conducted to obtain the properly vehicle driving strategy. Based on the results of vehicle dynamic analysis, a high specific power proton-exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack with 1000 W and a high-performance direct current (DC) brushless motor (1000 W) are selected to build the propulsion system of the Shell Eco-marathon vehicle. Based on the experimental result, the racing time (1300-1440 seconds) and varied range of racing speed (23-27 km/h) are selected as the driving strategy. Finally, the efficiency of the fuel cell-powered vehicle is analyzed. In the race at the year of 2018, the designed vehicle won the first place.