Evaluation of low power electric vehicles in demanding urban conditions: an application to Lisbon

This research paper analyses the use of four electric vehicles, two motorcycles (EM) and two small low powered electric vehicles (EV) in an urban environment with demanding topography and driving profile. The vehicles were compared with conventional technologies using a methodology that was developed to estimate its drive cycle (EV-DC) as well as the corresponding energy consumption, in a life-cycle approach. This methodology uses real-world driving cycles as input performed with conventional vehicles, in this case, on representative routes in Lisbon, and estimates the impacts on the driving cycle considering that an electric vehicle was used. The deviation between the original and the estimated driving cycles for electric vehicles was quantified considering the power and speed limitations of the electric vehicles and the average speed and trip time impacts were quantified. The results indicate up to 13% longer trip time for the vehicles and up to 25% longer trip time for motorcycles, resulting of reductions in average trip speed of up to 11 and 20% respectively. In terms of fuel efficiency, the electric technologies considered may reduce the Tank-to-Wheel (TTW) energy consumption in average 10 times for the vehicles and 4 times for the motorcycles. However, the reductions in a Well-to-Wheel (WTW) approach are reduced to a 5 times reduction in energy consumption for vehicles and a 2 times reduction for motorcycles. In all, this methodology corresponds to an innovative way of understanding how low-powered electric technologies, both vehicles and motorcycles, would perform in specific applications to replace conventional technologies, both in terms of trips statistics and of energy and environmental performance.