An Investigation of Fuel Economy Potential of Hybrid Vehicles under Real-World Driving Conditions in Bangkok

Abstract

This study attempted to investigate fuel economy performance of hybrid vehicles under real-world driving conditions in Bangkok. The effect of traffic conditions and driving styles were taken into account. To cover the variations in traffic conditions, city, suburban and highway traffic were selected to represent the variety of traffic flow. For the effect of driving styles, the experiment was conducted by four experienced drivers, two aggressive and two normal-calm drivers. Statistical parameters, average speed and acceleration noise, were employed to quantify and analyse the impact of Bangkok traffic conditions and driving styles on both vehicles’ fuel consumption. This study integrated microtrip segmentation technique into the data analysis. Experimental results illustrated that HVs were capable of reducing fuel consumption of CVs in all traffic conditions and driving styles covered by this study. Particularly in the congested traffic in Bangkok, HVs potentially decreased the fuel consumption by a maximum of 47.3%. More importantly, HVs greatly mitigated the effect of aggressiveness on excessive fuel consumption in practical driving habits, although they appeared to be more sensitive to aggressiveness than CVs.