A Contribution to Sustainable Product Development Using the Example of Battery Electric Vehicles

Vivien Glönkler, Benedikt Reick, Ralf Stetter, Markus Till and Markus Pfeil
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Vivien Glönkler: Department of Electrical Engineering, Ravensburg-Weingarten University (RWU), 88250 Weingarten, Germany
Benedikt Reick: Department of Electrical Engineering, Ravensburg-Weingarten University (RWU), 88250 Weingarten, Germany
Ralf Stetter: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ravensburg-Weingarten University (RWU), 88250 Weingarten, Germany
Markus Till: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ravensburg-Weingarten University (RWU), 88250 Weingarten, Germany
Markus Pfeil: Department of Electrical Engineering, Ravensburg-Weingarten University (RWU), 88250 Weingarten, Germany

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-27

Abstract: Currently, a consensus in the scientific community can be observed that it is necessary to reduce the carbon footprint and the use of fossil resources in order to ensure the ongoing well-being of humanity and our planet. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) can contribute to this reduction, as they can use energy from sustainable sources as well as store it in order to enable individual mobility. Still, as long as sustainable energy is not available in abundance and a share of our energy still is generated using fossil sources, it is important to consider the energy consumption of these BEVs in greater detail. BEVs may actually consume more energy than necessary due to an architecture borrowed from non-BEVs, due to their drive-train topology, due to many individual product development issues and last but not least because they are not operated at their highest efficiency. This paper addresses the evaluation of a specific sustainable product development process for BEVs. The study is based on detailed energy consumption simulations of smaller BEVs with different drive train technologies. A general consideration of sustainability and utility based on the design choices, as well as of societal consequences, leads to requirements and challenges for sustainable product development. A digital product development process is described, which addresses these challenges.

Keywords: sustainable product development; battery electric vehicle; digital design; graph-based design languages (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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