There is rapidly growing interest in autonomous electric vehicles due to their potential in improving safety, accessibility, and environmental outcomes. However, their market penetration rate is dependent on costs. Use of autonomous electric vehicles for shared-use mobility may improve their cost competitiveness. So far, most of the research has focused on the cost impact of autonomy on taxis and ridesourcing services. Singapore is planning for island-wide deployment of autonomous vehicles for both scheduled and on-demand services as part of their transit system in the year 2030. TUMCREATE developed an autonomous electric vehicle concept, a microtransit vehicle with 30-passenger capacity, which can complement the existing bus transit system. This study aims to determine the cost of autonomous electric microtransit vehicles and compare them to those of buses. A total cost of ownership (TCO) approach was used to compare the lifecycle costs. It was shown that although the acquisition costs of autonomous electric vehicles are higher than those of their conventional counterparts, they can reduce the TCO per passenger-km up to 75% and 60% compared to their conventional counterparts and buses, respectively.
To better evaluate the configuration of battery packs in electric vehicles (EV) in the early design phase, this paper proposes a mathematic model for the simulation of battery packs based on the elementwise calculations of matrices. This model is compatible with the different battery models and has a fast simulation speed. An experimental platform is built for the verification. Based on the proposed model and the statistic features of battery cells, the influence of the number of paralleled cells in a battery pack is evaluated in Monte-Carlo experiments. The simulation results obtained from Monte-Carlo experiments show that the parallel number is able to influence the total energy loss inside the cells, the energy loss caused by the balancing of the battery management system (BMS) and the degradation of the battery pack.
While an increasing number of electric bicycles are sold, the majority is still conventional, i.e., pedal powered.Electric bicycles could raise the share of people cycling in place of more inefficient modes of transportation. This paper investigates and proposes a new approach for an electric drive unit that can easily be attached and detached to a large majority of existing off-the-shelf bicycles to convert them into legal electric assisted bicycles (pedelecs). Different drive mechanisms were investigated and a design with a friction roller at the rear wheel showed the greatest potential. A good solution is achieved with a single unit that incorporates batteries, electronics, motors and sensors in a single enclosure to minimize the mounting time. With a fastening on the seat stay tube using a simple clamp mechanism it can assist the cyclist on most existing bicycles. The legally-required pedal detection is done with an integrated proximity sensor. A prototype is built to prove a simple and nonspecific installation and convenient usage.
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