A Comprehensive Modelling Tool for Heavy-Duty Hybrid Fuel Cell/Battery Powertrains

The global transition towards sustainable transportation is driving the development of efficient, low-emission propulsion systems. Battery-electric solutions are effective in urban contexts, but face limitations in heavy-duty and long-haul applications due to the size and weight of the required energy storage. Hybrid battery/fuel cell powertrains offer a promising alternative for such use cases, reducing vehicle mass and charging times while maintaining high energy efficiency. This study presents an original zero-dimensional MATLAB/Simulink model, named HyPoST (Hydrogen Powertrain Simulation Tool), for a parallel hybrid fuel cell/battery system, here applied to heavy-duty vehicles. The model encompasses the main vehicle sub-systems, including the fuel cell stack with auxiliaries, battery pack, electric drive, transmission and the vehicle longitudinal dynamics, coordinated through a rule-based energy management strategy. Two representative heavy-duty vehicle configurations were analysed: a Group 5 long-haul truck, and a Group 2 urban delivery vehicle. A model-to-model validation strategy was performed using VECTO as a reference, the reference European Union's tool for estimating energy consumption in heavy-duty vehicles. A graphical user interface (GUI) enables users to modify vehicle parameters and run customized simulations, and the model is made available to the scientific community in open and editable version upon request to the authors. The results demonstrate that HyPoST accurately reproduces heavy-duty vehicle behaviour for both truck models, as revealed by the analysis of gear selection, electric motor, and battery telemetries, providing a scalable and accessible tool for engineers, researchers and students.