Road segment and driving schedule effects in real-time operation on electric vehicle performance and operating cost analysis

Abstract

Electric two-wheelers (E2W) are getting attraction as personal commuting vehicles owing to their key features like zero tailpipe emissions and lower energy consumption. However, the driving range, maximum speed and load-carrying capacity are the major hurdles associated with the E2W penetration rate in modern mobility. Likewise, these performance characteristics are varying based on the powertrain size, driving and atmospheric conditions. To address these challenges, The present study is focused on evaluating the operating regions of E2W powertrain components under three major road segments including rural, highway and urban at different driving schedules such as morning, afternoon and evening. The speed, acceleration and time-related driving parameters for the selected driving routes and trip timings are calculated to study their influence on the performance of E2W along with ambient conditions. Further, this research work is extended to compare the operating cost and CO2 emission of E2W with spark-ignition two-wheeler (SI-2W) based on real-time driving conditions. The energy consumed per km for E2W is 47.10, 40.53 and 41.63 Wh/km for morning, afternoon and evening driving trips. Similarly, the battery state of charge is recorded about 14%, 30% and 27% respectively at the end of the trips. Also, the results revealed that higher energy is consumed on the morning driving schedule due to higher average speeds with unfavourable ambient conditions. On the other way around, the CO2 emission, operating cost per trip and 100 km of E2W are 6.4, 6.5 and 2.4 times lesser than SI-2W.