Analysis of daily driving and its impact to the fuel economy of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles
Ainul Ghurri (a*), I Made Gatot Karohika (a), I Ketut Gede Sugita (a), I Made Widiyarta (a), I Nyoman Gde Antara (a)
(a) Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Udayana
Bali, Indonesia
*a_ghurri[at]unud.ac.id
Abstract
Plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) is one of promising vehicle type to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. The potential of PHEV is highly dependent on the mileage need of the vehicle, the availability of charging station, the capability of the electrical source, and the commitment of the driver itself to do the charging. The present study is aimed to analyze some interdependent factors in actual driving of PHEV to its fuel economy. The analysis was conducted by using the actual data from daily driving of six drivers. The PHEV is gasoline engine equipped with 8.8 kWh battery. All drivers have access to the charging station at workplace with their own daily mileage from home to workplace. The availability of charging station in drivers- home was not same due to the difference in capacity of electrical source. The PHEVs were provided with data acquisition covering mileage, fuel consumption, fuel economy, engine mode duration, EV mode duration, etc. The results showed that the fuel economy of the PHEV varied highly depended on the combination of factors faced by each driver. The access to the charging facility and the time availability to do charging impacted to the daily charging frequency, then affected the EV driving ratio. The daily mileage also strongly affected the EV driving ratio and then impacting the fuel economy of the PHEV. The charging frequency of the six drivers varied from 0.6 times/day to 2 times/day. Houses with electrical capacity 3500 W is capable to charge the PHEV at 8A current in 5 hours until full charged. The charging facility in workplace was able to charge at 16A current in 2 hours until full charged. The fuel economy of the PHEV varied from 29.2 km/l until almost 100 km/l. The fuel economy at 29.2 km/l was not so different with the fuel economy of HEV without plug-in feature, so the large capacity of the battery was not beneficial. The results underlined that the charging facility and the electrical source capacity together with the recommended driving distance of the vehicle were the very important consideration to decide the battery capacity installed to the PHEV.
Keywords: Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, fuel economy, EV driving, battery charging
Topic: EV Socio-Economical Impact