Analysis of real driving data to explore travelling needs in relation to hybrid–electric vehicle solutions

The paper presents a methodology and an analysis applied to a real-life dataset, which refer to an extendedperiod that lasted more than one year, pertaining to trips undertaken in Europe by more than one thousandvehicles. The results in this paper are an example of the detailed information that can be extracted from roughdata to support the decisions of stakeholders andfinal users (e.g. car makers, authorities, drivers), as well as tounderstand which road vehicle features will be able to comply with the observed daily usage of automobiles.The main scope of the paper has been to focus on variables concerning the duration and lengths of trips, theidle times, and the energy consumed by engines. These variables have been correlated and compared with thecurrent and expected hybrid and electric ranges of autonomy, as constrained by the present and next generationof electric batteries, both in terms of autonomy and time required for their recharging. Therefore, the aim of thestudy has been tofind answers to the following research question: considering the daily mileage, actual fuelconsumption and idle time structure, can hybrid and electric powertrains represent adequate alternatives totraditional engines, considering the present battery ranges and charging alternatives?Long distance trips have been analysed in detail to obtain a better understanding of whether they can becovered by electric cars in the same ways as they are with those based on internal combustion engines. In theextensive sample that has been analysed, in order to satisfy 99,9% of the daily trips, it would be necessary toraise the range to 400 km. This target could be reached by adopting a PHEV (plug-in) or a full-electric car withan equivalent range. This study provides a quantitative analysis of the energy needs, obtained over a wide rangeof usage of road vehicles, and attempts to correlate them with the opportunities of recovering energy during theidle time detected over real-life 24h driving cycles, assuming the availability of intermediate charges