A Pilot Study of Electrical Vehicle Performance, Efficiency, and Limitation in Kuwait’s Harsh Weather and Environment

Abstract

Due to industrialization and an exponential increase in population, the demand for vehicles has increased in Kuwait. Utilizing fossil fuels to power vehicles that are in high demand has posed various environmental and medical implications. Considering the emission-free feature of electric vehicles (EVs), moving towards “EV readiness” is the need of the hour. This can be further enhanced by adopting alternative sustainable technologies such as photo voltaic (PV) charging of EVs, to potentially eliminate or significantly reduce the reliance on fossil fuel while simultaneously decreasing harmful emissions. As Kuwait does not manufacture cars, it imports all vehicles and their parts, including internal combustion engines (ICEs) and EVs. To find out the challenges to uplifting Kuwait’s “EV readiness” this study delved into the performance of a typical EV car in Kuwait’s weather conditions. This includes the investigation of parameters that influence the energy requirements in an electric vehicle, the change in the energy requirement in relation to several driving scenarios, and the efficiency of the EV battery. The results indicate that a significant amount of energy is being wasted for battery conditioning, which drastically reduces the distance covered during summer. The energy required for air-conditioning and battery conditioning are both positively correlated to the ambient temperature, while the time required to charge the battery has no relationship with the time of the day, traffic, or trip length. Additionally, the paper discusses some major challenges, such as lack of awareness, inadequate charging stations, and absence of policy. The paper recommends the most vital areas to be focused on for meeting the above challenges to make the transition to an “EV ready” state.