Cycle-averaged efficiency of hybrid electric vehicles

Abstract

In this paper we present an extension of the tank-to-wheel efficiency for hybrid electric vehicles. The energy at the wheel is split into dissipative energy and circulating energy. Instead of using one lumped tank-to-wheel efficiency, we use fuel-to-traction efficiency and recuperation efficiency. We further show that for a hybrid electric vehicle, fuel-to-traction efficiency and recuperation efficiency are almost constant and independent of the driving cycle. This fact makes our approach well suited for the estimation of the needed fuel energy for hybrid electric vehicles.