Assessing range and performance of electric vehicles in nordic driving conditions: Project "RekkEVidde"

Until battery technology makes a leap, shortage of range is by far the greatest flaw in electric vehicle technology that is otherwise very effective and promising. However, energy use is also highly dependent on duty cycles, driving conditions and traffic situation. Furthermore, cabin heating in an EV will not be supported by energy losses as in an ICE-car. Therefore, actual range can differ substantially in real-life situations, and can be much shorter than the official figures given by the manufacturers. Project RekkEVidde is aiming at drafting a testing scheme to address EV driving in Nordic conditions, and produce realistic range estimates for the consumers to help them understand and make better use of this raising technology. Initial laboratory testing was imposed on a Citroën C-Zero EV using multiple different driving cycles and testing also at -20 °C, not just the normal ambient. First review of the results in this paper shows that the energy consumption was raised on average some 30 % at low ambient, resulting to a 15 to 30 % shorter range. This was due to only increasing the air drag component according to increase in air density, but further on-road testing will also give us more information on increase of rolling resistance because of snow and ice packed on road surface. Furthermore, use of cabin heating was not included in these numbers. Should it be turned on, the range will be further shortened as much as 50 % in slow-speed urban driving.