Comparative Life Cycle Analysis of Hybrid and Conventional Drive Vehicles in Various Driving Conditions

Growing environmental concern prompts vehicle users to search for cleaner and ecological transport modes. Many consumers and organizations have decided to replace conventional diesel or gasoline powered vehicles with alternative drive or alternative-powered vehicles. Operating conditions may have a heavy influence on the operating parameters of vehicles, such as: airpollution emission, energy consumption and fuel consumption. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the life cycle of conventional and hybrid drive vehicles in various driving conditions. The presented LCA results show that replacing a conventional diesel or gasoline vehicle with a hybrid electric drive vehicle results in approximately 40 % lower total lifetime air-pollutant emissions than those of conventional drive vehicles in urban driving conditions.

Overview of import substitution in the houseboat market and a proposal for choosing a power unit using hydraulic drives

A study was carried out on the possibility and necessity of operating houseboats in the water areas of Russia on the basis of the concept of the development of reservoirs and small rivers, which is currently being developed by the state within the framework of national programs. A review of the operational, overall, displacement characteristics of houseboats was carried out with consideration of various options for ship power plants, suitable for the class of floating craft with registration in the State Inspection of Small Vehicles. The use of a stationary engine (JSC AvtoVAZ) in a configuration with a hydraulic drive and a swing-out column is proposed. Calculations of the resistance of the houseboat platform hull were made using several methods. A mechanism for the choice of propellers using a free software product according to empirical methods is proposed. An alternative drive scheme is selected, a detailed model of the working process of a houseboat's hydraulic drive is selected, and a mathematical model of its operation is presented.

The Importance of Alternative Drive Vehicles in Road Transport in Poland and the European Union

The development of electromobility in Poland and the whole world is an inevitable process. Every year, electric vehicles and vehicles powered by renewable fuels become more and more popular. It should be noted that the development of infrastructure for electric vehicles and the pursued environmental policy with the related subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles are an important aspect encouraging the purchase of this type of vehicle. The article presents a comparison of the popularity of vehicles powered by renewable energy sources in Poland and other European Union countries, as well as the characteristics of the most common alternative fuels. Its main objective is to specify the importance of passenger cars with alternative drive sources across the selected EU countries.

On Analytical Modeling of the Air Gap Field Modulation in the Brushless Doubly Fed Reluctance Machine

The brushless doubly fed reluctance machine (BDFRM) is receiving an increased amount of attention from the research community thanks to its potential as an alternative drive for variable speed applications, both as motor and generator. Currently, the sizing of the BDFRM in the literature is based on the model of an ideal axially laminated rotor (ALR) and discrepancies are hidden in compensation factors which are in turn tuned with a finite element analysis (FEA). This paper proposes an analytical framework to accurately model the air gap field modulation, and by extension the torque density, of the BDFRM with ducted segmental rotor (DSR) and salient pole rotor (SPR). The results are verified with FEA and validated on a BDFRM prototype.

Expected Impacts of the Massive Increase in Electric Vehicles in Slovakia

Society and the government perceive alternative propulsions as a way out of a world of high emissions. For several years now, European countries have been trying to enforce various strategic plans in which they give maximum support to electromobility. Subsidies and emission limits for car manufacturers or strategic plans for the development of electromobility in each European country are only a small part of the enormous support for the development of this new alternative drive. However, questions arise in the energy and ecology sectors: Is Slovakia ready to increase the number of electric vehicles? Will Slovakia have enough energy sources? Are electric cars really as clean as they are presented? The article focuses on these issues and, through detailed analysis, based on individual annual reports of each sector, refutes or confirms the fact that electromobility is a promising alternative and a replacement for internal combustion engines.

Electrification in the automotive industry: effects in remanufacturing

The automotive market is changing. For many years, cars with internal-combustion engines were dominant. Recently, more cars with alternative drive trains have become available, and their market share has increased, a trend that has had an effect on the remanufacturing industry for automotive parts. This paper aims to describe and evaluate the challenges and opportunities in the coming years for the remanufacturing industry as a result of the increasing number and share of electric vehicles. Both theory and empirical data have been used to meet this aim. From theory, the two different drive train concepts of the internal combustion engine and the battery electric vehicle are described, along with the major differences from a remanufacturing standpoint. These differences and effects are described, evaluated, and fully or partly confirmed by industry experts. The results show that future market actors are unset today, less space-consuming machinery parks will be needed, major investments into knowledge and equipment (especially for testing) will be required, and the necessity to handle different kinds of end-of-use/life solutions, especially the recovery for the electric vehicle battery packs, will be a challenge. As future development is still uncertain, the authors recommend that market actors investigate the challenges and opportunities highlighted in this paper and watch future developments carefully.

Life Cycle Cost (LCC) Level of an Urban Transport Fleet with Differentiated Share of Buses with Alternative Drive Systems

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of buses operated by urban public transport companies powered by alternative fuels and equipped with alternative drive systems. In addition to economic factors, operators should also take environmental aspects into account when purchasing new vehicles. In this case, a useful criterion for selecting a vehicle is the Life Cycle Cost (LCC), which, in addition to the cost of purchasing a bus, takes into account the necessary expenses associated with its maintenance, operation, decommissioning, as well as emissions costs. This paper presents a study of the LCC values, estimated for the entire bus fleet based on several bus replacement variants, taking into account different shares of alternative buses in the transport fleet. Analyses have shown that replacing conventional buses by the compressed natural gas (CNG) powered buses will reduce life cycle cost by 27% compared to the LCC level in 2019. Increasing the share of electric buses in the fleet will significantly reduce the level of emissions of harmful substances contained in exhaust gases.

Assessment of Total Costs of Ownership for Midsize Passenger Cars with Conventional and Alternative Drive Trains

The number of alternatively powered vehicles in Poland and EU is growing steadily. Different type of vehicle drive trains determine variations in their performances from economical and environmental technological aspects. The aim of this paper was to investigate the cost efficiency and environmental aspects of midsize passenger cars equipped with different drive train technologies: conventional, hybrid, electric and LPG fueled engine. To this purpose, the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) method was used. Calculations were carried out by AFLEET Tool. The results show that the LPG fueled car has the lowest TCO, while the cars equipped with electric drivetrain indicate the highest TCO. However the electric car recorded the lowest cost of air pollutant emissions and externalities costs.