The impact of daily and annual driving on fuel economy and CO₂ emissions of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles

The potential of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions highly depends on vehicle usage and electricity source. The electric driving share, i.e. the share of kilometres driven electrically, is specific to PHEV and a key factor for its fuel economy. Altogether, a detailed understanding of all factors influencing PHEV fuel economy is missing, especially with regard to driving distances. The authors analyse the influence of driving behaviour on fuel economy and more precisely the influences on the electric driving share based on mobility data. The authors applied a regression with mobility data of 780 vehicles to identify the main factors explaining this variation. The authors' results indicate that real-world fuel economy of PHEV differs widely among users. The resulting factors that explain up to 80% of the fuel economy are the all-electric range, the annual mileage, the regularity of daily driving, and the likelihood of long-distance trips. In our empirical analysis, the average electric driving share of N = 1,831 Chevrolet Volt in real-world driving is 78%. When the electricity for charging comes from renewable energy sources the resulting real-world well-to-wheel CO₂ emissions of these PHEV are 37 gCO₂/km. However, even with the current US electricity mix, the annual CO₂ savings of all registered Chevrolet Volts in the U.S. amount to about 57 kt CO2 in comparison to conventional cars. Furthermore, a full charge per day is necessary for high fuel economy and any necessary recharging during the day increases the share of electric driving and lowers the consumption of conventional fuel. Current test-cycle fuel economy ratings neglect these factors. Although fuel economy ratings are good estimates for average usage patterns, they fail to account for the high variation in individual driving behaviour. This should be taken into account by future test-cycles and policies should incentivise high electric driving shares.

• Record URL:
  • https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2018.09.018
• Record URL:
  • http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096585641630012X
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/09658564
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Abstract reprinted with permission of Elsevier.
• Authors:
  • Plötz, Patrick
  • Funke, Simon Árpád
  • Jochem, Patrick
• Publication Date: 2018-12

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 331-340
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice
  • Volume: 118
  • Issue Number: 0
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 0965-8564
  • Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09658564

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automobile travel; Behavior; Daily; Driving; Fuel consumption; Greenhouse gases; Plug-in hybrid vehicles
• Identifier Terms: Chevrolet Volt
• Uncontrolled Terms: Annual mileage
• Subject Areas: Energy; Environment; Highways; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01682743
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 5 2018 9:27AM