Many Asian, American, and European car makers are developing cars and trucks with electric drive train components and traction battery systems to help reduce fuel consumption. Meeting mandated fleet fuel economy targets is a strong development force. The growing market for electric vehicles (EVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) will help reduce pollution and greenhouse emissions.
The keys to a successful market penetration of EVs and HEVs is extending lifetimes, improving reliability, and lowering the costs of the vehicle traction battery system.
ISO revs up electrically propelled road vehicles
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) technical committee (TC) 22, Road vehicles, subcommittee (SC) 21, Electrically propelled road vehicles, is responsible for the Standards work on all vehicle types of EVs, HEVs, and FCEVs and also cooperates with other committees developing related Standards.
Infrastructure for EVs and plug-in EVs
Successful introduction of battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids depends on the availability of the electric infrastructure, particularly charging stations at home and recharging stations in public areas. Several car manufacturers are trying to design EVs with more than 160 km range per change to minimise recharging at public recharge stations. Field tests with customers in cities are ongoing to evaluate the acceptance levels of different EVs and their handling for charging and billing.
An important future issue is the standardisation of the charging interface to ensure safe and simple connections to the electric power grid. This includes the connector system hardware (plug and socket) and the communications between vehicle and grid to manage the vehicle battery charging process, the billing procedure, and the load profile optimisation for grid and electric energy suppliers.
Connector system and communication protocols must ensure electrical safety, secure data transfer, easy handling, and protection against vandalism. ISO/TC 22 and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)/TC 69 (Electric road vehicles and electric industrial tractors) have begun this work in joint working groups. Partners from involved industry sectors are contributing with expertise and delegates, with the aim of having accepted Standards in the shortest time possible.
Standards developed by ISO/TC 22/SC 21
The following Standards have been developed by ISO/TC 22/SC 21.
→ ISO 8713 Electric road vehicles – Vocabulary
→ ISO 8714:2002 Electric road vehicles – Reference energy consumption and range – Test procedures for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles
→ ISO 8715:2001 Electric road vehicles – Road operating characteristics
→ ISO 6469-1:2009 Electrically propelled road vehicles – Safety specifications – Part 1: On-board rechargeable energy storage system (RESS)
→ ISO 6469-2:2009 Electrically propelled road vehicles – Safety specifications – Part 2: Vehicle operational safety means and protection against failures
→ ISO 6469-3:2001 Electric road vehicles – Safety specifications – Part 3: Protection of persons against electric hazards
→ ISO 23273-1:2006 Fuel cell road vehicles – Safety specifications – Part 1: Vehicle functional safety
→ ISO 23273-2:2006 Fuel cell road vehicles – Safety specifications – Part 2: Protection against hydrogen hazards for vehicles fuelled with compressed hydrogen
→ ISO 23273-3:2006 Fuel cell road vehicles – Safety specifications – Part 3: Protection of persons against electric shock
→ ISO 23828:2008 Fuel cell road vehicles – Energy consumption measurement – Vehicles fuelled with compressed hydrogen
→ ISO 23274:2007 Hybrid-electric road vehicles – Exhaust emissions and fuel consumption measurements – Non-externally chargeable vehicles
→ ISO/TR 11954:2008 Fuel cell road vehicles – Maximum speed measurement
→ ISO/TR 11955:2008 Hybrid-electric road vehicles – Guidelines for charge balance measurement
Summarised from an article by Dietrich Sahm, Chair of ISO/TC 22/SC 21 in ISO Focus, September 2009