Experimental Research On Energy Efficiency Of Autonomous Electric Vehicles

Considerable reduction of automotive carbon emissions is required to prevent climate change from reaching unmanageable levels. Though electric vehicles can reduce automotive emissions, there are major obstacles. One of them is range anxiety, where the vehicle users are worried that the battery will become empty before reaching their destination. Another major obstacle is limited supply of renewable electricity, while the number of electric vehicles is increasing. Considering these major obstacles, improving energy efficiency of electric vehicles, which will result in higher electric vehicle range and lower renewable electricity demand, is an important research area.

During this project, the main scientific questions are:
(1) How much reduction in electricity consumption is possible with a longitudinal vehicle controller that exploits the powertrain characteristics, V2X communication and traffic, in different driving scenarios?
(2) Is the savings in the electricity cost over the vehicle’s life-time more than the additional capital cost?

The overarching scientific question is, can we design longitudinal vehicle control systems with positive results for these questions which are important for carbon emissions and life-time vehicle cost. In addition, we are establishing a Future Mobility Lab to pursue long-term research in this direction.