Vehicle with electrical traction including an energy management system, and method for managing the energy in such a vehicle with electrical traction

An electric traction vehicle (100) comprising:

• a plurality of wheels (103);
• at least one electric traction chain comprising at least one electric motor (3b), mechanically coupled to at least one of said wheels to supply a driving torque;
• an energy management system (20;
• 40) of said electric traction chain (3), the energy management system comprising:
• a) a power bus (1);
• b) a network power collector (2) suitable to electrically couple the power bus (1) to a network power line (104), which is external to the vehicle and, in use, is designed to provide a network supply voltage (VAL) to the power bus (1) even when the vehicle (100) is moving;
• c) a first energy source (6), which is arranged on-board and comprises one from among:
• a generator set, an engine-generator, a fuel cell, a hydrogen cell, said first energy source (6) being suitable to be electrically coupled to the power bus (1) to power the power bus (1) with a first supply voltage;
• d) an on-board energy storage system (21) suitable to be electrically coupled to the power bus (1) and comprising a storage assembly (21) to power the power bus (1) with a second supply voltage and to receive a recharge voltage or current from the power bus (1);
• e) a plurality of switches comprising:
• (1) a second switch (K2) electrically coupled between the network power collector (2) and the power bus (1);
• (2) a fourth switch (K5) electrically coupled between the storage system and the power bus (1);
• and
• f) a management and control unit (102, 30), operatively coupled to said plurality of switches
• wherein
• said first energy source is mechanically disconnected from said plurality of wheels (103) and from said electric motor (3b) in every operating condition;
• said plurality of switches comprises:
• (1) a first switch (K1) electrically coupled between the first energy source (6) and the power bus (1);
• (2) a third switch (K3) electrically coupled between the electric traction chain (3) and the power bus (1);
• said management and control unit (102, 30) controls said first, second, third and fourth switches to electrically couple/decouple said first energy source (6), said network power collector (2), said electric traction chain (3) and said storage system to/from the power bus (1) so as to implement a plurality of operative conditions of the vehicle (100);
• and wherein said plurality of operative conditions of the vehicle (100) include a first and a second operative condition of traction, and wherein:
• a) in the first operative condition of traction, the first energy source (6) and the network power collector (2) are decoupled from the power bus (1), while the storage system and the electric traction chain (3) are coupled to the power bus (1), so that the electric traction chain (3) is powered through a first intermediate voltage correlated with the second supply voltage;
• and
• b) in the second operative condition of traction, the network power collector (2) is decoupled from the power bus (1), while the first energy source (6), the storage system and the electric traction chain (3) are coupled to the power bus (1), so that the electric traction chain (3) is powered through a second intermediate voltage correlated with the first and the second supply voltages, so as to power the traction chain (3) by drawing an aliquot of power from the first energy source (6) and a further aliquot of power from the storage system.