Energy consumption of the trolleybuses

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze energy consumption of nowadays electric vehicles on selected exemplary trolleybuses worked out by Miejskie Przedsiebiorstwo Komunikacyjne w Lublinie. Nowadays problems concerned to inflated environmental pollution caused a sudden increase in interest in the possibility of using electric propulsion in motor vehicles. Contemporary electric vehicles allow to carry out the process of regenerative braking with the recuperation of electric energy into supercapacitors, batteries or overhead lines. Now the main factor which is limiting the performance characteristics of electrically powered vehicles is the need of using autonomous power sources such as rechargeable battery cells with limited dimensions and mass. It directly limits the range of nowadays electric vehicle. Studies of modern electric vehicles are based on road cycles which are characteristic for this group of vehicles. During the studies, apart from energy consumption are tested the range of vehicle and ability to to climb the required gradients. Basing on the analysis of obtained results we can assume that the intensity of the braking phase, initial speed of the braking phase and total mass of vehicle are the most important factors contributing to the quantity of regenerated electric energy during regenerative braking phase.