Fuel Economy of Plug-In Hybrid Electric and Hybrid Electric Vehicles: Effects of Vehicle Weight, Hybridization Ratio and Ambient Temperature

Abstract

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are evolving rapidly since the introduction of Toyota Prius into the market in 1997. As the world needs more fuel-efficient vehicles to mitigate climate change, the role of HEVs and PHEVs are becoming ever more important. While fuel economies of HEVs and PHEVs are superior to those of internal combustion engine (ICE) powered vehicles, they are partially powered by batteries and therefore they resemble characteristics of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) such as dependence of fuel economy on ambient temperatures. It is also important to understand how different extent of hybridization (a.k.a., hybridization ratio) affects fuel economy under various driving conditions. In addition, it is of interest to understand how HEVs and PHEVs compare with BEVs at a similar vehicle weight. This study investigated the relationship between vehicle mass and vehicle performance parameters, mainly fuel economy and driving range of PHEVs focused on 2018 and 2019 model years using the test data available from fuel economy website of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Previous studies relied on modeling to understand mass impact on fuel economy for HEV as there were not enough number of HEVs in the market to draw a trendline at the time. The study also investigated the effect of ambient temperature for HEVs and PHEVs and kinetic energy recovery of the regenerative braking using the vehicle testing data for model year 2013 and 2015 from Idaho National Lab (INL). The current study assesses current state-of-art for PHEVs. It also provides analysis of experimental results for validation of vehicle dynamic and other models for PHEVs and HEVs.

Analysis of the Powertrain Component Size of Electrified Vehicles Commercially Available on the Market

“…There are about 200 HEV and PHEV models available on the market, including the ones available only at local markets [19]. Jung [19] analysed 65 models of the HEVs and PHEVs available on the market to find the correlation between the fuel economy, the driving range and the vehicle mass. Zhang et al [20] attempted to analyse the market development of the PHEVs in United States and China.…”

“…In this analysis, the specifications of mass production hybrid and electric vehicles are collected from the references [19,20,[26][27][28][29]. The missing data was completed from the manufacturers' websites.…”

Capabilities of Nearly Zero Energy Building (nZEB) Electricity Generation to Charge Electric Vehicle (EV) Operating in Real Driving Conditions (RDC)

“…The first group consists of electric vehicles that generate their propulsion energy, including Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV). Another group includes vehicles which, in addition to generating energy, use electric energy supplied from an external source, known as a plug-in (PHEV, PFCEV) [20][21][22]. The last group comprises vehicles equipped with an extensive energy storage system that uses only externally supplied electricity and electricity from regenerative braking, such as BEVs [23].…”

Belt-Driven Integrated Starter and Generator Using Planetary Gears for Micro Hybrid Electric Vehicles

“…The weight of the planetary gears is 11.17 kg, as presented in TABLE IV; thus, the percentage change in the micro-HEV weight is slight. In addition, the fuel economy variation with installation of the mechanical torque converter can be derived [26].…”