Jul 11 2007
IOP Publishing is pleased to announce the online publication of “How hybrid-electric vehicles are different from conventional vehicles: the effect of weight and power on fuel consumption” in the widely-respected journal Environmental Research Letters (erl.iop.org). The study compares the fuel consumption of hybrid electric vehicles for sale in the United States in 2007 to equivalent conventional vehicles.
This investigation by researchers at University of British Columbia is the first to account for all nine light-duty hybrid electric vehicle models on the market in 2007 (a number that’s actually expected to double in the next two to three years). While these vehicles only made up about 1.6% of the total vehicle sales in the United States in 2006, nearly 30% were SUVs.
The researchers found that heavier and more powerful hybrid electric vehicles are eroding the fuel consumption benefit of this technology. Despite these findings, the weight penalty for fuel consumption in these vehicles is significantly lower than in equivalent conventional internal combustion engine vehicles
The article is available online at the following link: http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/-search=23955992.1/1748-9326/2/1/014003.
“How hybrid-electric vehicles are different from conventional vehicles: the effect of weight and power on fuel consumption” is authored by Dr. Milind Kandlikar and Conor Reynolds of University of British Columbia.