Performance evaluation of series hybrid and pure electric vehicles using lead-acid batteries and supercapacitors

The adoption of pure electric and hybrid electric vehicles for public transportation poses a number of issues. In this paper, we simulate the implications of series hybrid- and pure electric- vehicles employing Pb acid battery-supercapacitor combinations. Our simulations suggest that peak fuel consumption is lessened to 31.3 percent in series hybrid electric vehicles when lead-acid batteries are coupled with supercapacitors compared to a system using batteries alone. Voltage fluctuations are reduced from 52 V difference to 1 V difference as the short transients are off-loaded to the supercapacitors. By altering the values for battery capacity, vehicle weight, and capacitance, the simulation suggests optimal operation ranges for targeted designs. In parts of the simulation, we took Metro Manila Jeepney drive cycle data characterized by frequent stop-and-start conditions and compared these to regularized routes travelling the same distance: the regularized drive cycles resulted in less battery parameter fluctuation for both models and less fuel consumption for the SHEV model with a value of 30.2 percent. The regularized route drive cycle needed lower-valued supercapacitors from 1700 F to 1000 F to produce the same performance. In addition, new driving cycles were also generated in NetLogo based on traffic policy assumptions.