14 DAY TRIAL // According to a team of researchers working with the US Department of Energy's Berkeley Lab, hybrid cars driven up and down roads in China and India are more fuel efficient than vehicles of the same type used by folks in the United States.
In two papers, one published in the journal Applied Energy and one accepted for publication in the International Journal of Powertrains, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory specialists detail that, according to evidence at hand, hybrid cars perform better in China and India due to traffic and driving conditions.
More precisely, they argue that heavy traffic, the aggressive driving style and the fact that there are few freeways available are the reasons why hybrid vehicles are more fuel efficient in said two countries than they are in the United States.
As detailed on the official website for Berkeley Lab, the scientists who worked on this research project found that traffic and driving conditions in India and China benefit hybrid vehicles in terms of fuel consumption after carrying out a series of experiments.
The specialists started by creating hypothetical hybridized versions of the top-selling conventional cars in China and India, i.e. the Build Excelle and the Maruti Alto, respectively. They explain that these hypothetical versions were intended to help to pin down the benefits of hybridization alone.
The researchers then simulated drive cycles in 2 Indian cities and in 11 cities in China, and compared them to drive cycles used in the United States to determine fuel efficiency rating, i.e. 55% city driving and 45% highway driving.
It was thus determined that, when compared to conventional cars, hybrid vehicles in India would yield fuel savings of about 47-48%. In China, on the other hand, such fuel savings were documented to have a value of 53-55%. By comparison, hybrids in the United States are said to translate in fuel savings of about 40% when compared to conventional vehicles.
According to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, hybrids are more fuel efficient in China and India as a result of frequent starting and stopping, lots of time spent idling, and low percentage of time spent on highways. Thus, these three issues are said to provide such vehicles with opportunities for additional fuel saving.
“One is regenerative braking, another is being able to turn off the engine when the car is stopped or in low-power condition, and another is that the hybrid system—the electric motor, the batteries—enable the engine to operate at a higher efficiency operating condition,” researcher Samveg Saxena said.
“We weighed the importance of these three mechanisms against each other for the Indian vehicles, and found that the ability to increase engine efficiency was the most important reason, second was regenerative braking, then engine shutdown,” he added.
The scientists have contacted authorities and high officials in India and have informed them of their findings. They say that, given the fact that this country aims to bring 6-7 million hybrid and electric vehicles on the road by the year 2020, the outcome of this research project could especially come in handy in terms of making low-emissions cars more appealing to the general public.
“This research performed by Berkeley Lab has helped us understand in much better detail the real-world value of electric vehicles to India,” said the current Additional Secretary of India’s Department of Heavy Industry, Ambuj Sharma.
“Their work has shown that Indian conditions are much more conducive to electric vehicles than we expected and has given a greater impetus and importance to the National Mission on Electric Mobility,” Ambuj Sharma went on to argue.
The US Department of Energy's Berkeley Lab specialists hope that China will also take notice of their findings, and that it too will use this piece of information to step up efforts to green up its fleet. “Hybrid and electric vehicles can significantly reduce carbon emissions and other pollutants,” lead researcher Anand Gopal wished to stress.