TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– The paper highlights the process of electric vehicles optimal design as an inverse problem and presents the global constrained optimization as the best way to solve it.Design/methodology/approach– The electric vehicle optimal design is carried out by a new approach. It consists an electric vehicle design model managed by constrained optimization techniques. It includes sizing models for all drive train components and a vehicle dynamic model build in a new “design way” as an energy‐based model using the response surface methodology. The sensitivity of first simple sizing models can be evaluated by the experimental design method, giving information about the most important part of the model that must be improved.Findings– The result shows the superiority of the constrained optimization technique that treats simultaneously the global optimization and the model adjustment. This method of simultaneous resolution is much more powerful than the successive resolution of each subproblem. The proposed “design approach” used for electric vehicle optimal design offer a large potential in the field of the complex systems design.Originality/value– The electric vehicle design process is treated on a vehicle design model based on a design approach. It allows determining the drive train components specifications for imposed vehicle performances, taking into account the dynamic model of the vehicle and all components interactions. Furthermore, considering fine components sizing models, the components can be sized taking into account the whole system behavior in an optimal global design. VL - 24 IS - 3 SN - 0332-1649 DO - 10.1108/03321640510598274 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/03321640510598274 AU - Mester V. AU - Gillon F. AU - Brochet P. PY - 2005 Y1 - 2005/01/01 TI - Optimal design of electric vehicles drive train T2 - COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 967 EP - 983 Y2 - 2024/04/25 ER -