Empirical Fuel Consumption and CO2 Emissions of Plug‐In Hybrid Electric Vehicles

Patrick Plötz, Simon Árpád Funke and Patrick Jochem

Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2018, vol. 22, issue 4, 773-784

Abstract: Plug‐in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) combine electric and conventional propulsion. Official fuel consumption values of PHEVs are based on standardized driving cycles, which show a growing discrepancy with real‐world fuel consumption. However, no comprehensive empirical results on PHEV fuel consumption are available, and the discrepancy between driving cycle and empirical fuel consumption has been conjectured to be large for PHEV. Here, we analyze real‐world fuel consumption data from 2,005 individual PHEVs of five PHEV models and observe large variations in individual fuel consumption with deviation from test‐cycle values in the range of 2% to 120% for PHEV model averages. Deviations are larger for short‐ranged PHEVs. Among others, range and vehicle power are influencing factors for PHEV model fuel consumption with average direct carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions decreasing by 2% to 3% per additional kilometer (km) of electric range. Additional simulations show that PHEVs recharged from renewable electricity can noteworthily reduce well‐to‐wheel CO2 emissions of passenger cars, but electric ranges should not exceed 200 to 300 km since battery production is CO2‐intense. Our findings indicate that regulations should (1) be based on real‐world fuel consumption measurements for PHEV, (2) take into account charging behavior and annual mileages, and (3) incentivize long‐ranged PHEV.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12623

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:inecol:v:22:y:2018:i:4:p:773-784

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=1088-1980

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Industrial Ecology is currently edited by Reid Lifset

More articles in Journal of Industrial Ecology from Yale University
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().