Experimental investigation and comparison of energy consumption of electric and conventional vehicles due to the driving pattern

In this paper, energy consumption of two light-duty vehicles, battery electric and conventional with an internal combustion engine, was investigated on the basis of chassis dynamometer test results. The sensitivity of energy consumption to various zero-dimensional characteristics of the driving pattern was discussed. The results demonstrated that under dynamic driving conditions, the electric vehicle used on average 64% less energy than the conventional one, even with battery charging efficiency taken into account. Among selected zero-dimensional characteristics, the average velocity and the average absolute value of the product of velocity and acceleration proved to be the best characteristics to describe the energy consumption of vehicles.