Battery electric vehicles

Battery electric vehicles do not generate any direct emissions so can be operated entirely cleanly at a local level. This reduces air pollution in city centres. All emissions relating to the operation of an electric vehicle arise from electricity generation in power stations. So only the electricity consumption of the electric vehicle is important for the environmental record.

Electric vehicles can generally be operated efficiently. Modern electric motors are very efficient and a multi-speed gearbox is not imperative. However, further losses arise when charging the battery and within the battery itself. There is currently very little data about the electricity consumption of electric vehicles under different usage conditions. If such data has been collated in standardised cycles such as the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC), it rarely enables any direct conclusions to be drawn about realistic energy consumption in day-to-day traffic. Research vehicles and prototypes are also usually not representative of future series production vehicles.


Therefore, ifeu will undertake systematic modelling of the energy consumption of electric vehicle under realistic conditions. The realistic electricity consumption of a compact electric passenger car is currently between 21 and 26 kWh/100km. In contrast to combustion-engined passenger cars, the consumption in inner-city areas is the lowest as the electric motor is very efficient in that setting. The values calculated for the official NEDC test cycle are significantly lower due to low dynamics.

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Energy consumption for an average electric passenger car in a range of driving patterns (IFEU 2011)

 

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