Smart mobility - considering possible ways how to improve a

consumption of electric passenger vehicles

Michal Sura michsoora@gmail.com

If we want to lower our carbon footprint caused by a transportation, we have to reduce

using fossil fuel-powered vehicles and start to use vehicles powered by renewable
energy. In this analysis, we will focus on electric passenger cars and discuss the issue
of improving their energy consumption. The electric vehicles (EV) produce zero direct
emissions, which helps to improve air quality in urban areas, it is accepted without any
doubts. It seem that the car industry is ready to change its production program and we
can see that there are produced more and more EVs. What is concerning, however, is
that the electric vehicles produced by the European car industry are mostly too large
and heavy. There are associated emissions of greenhouse gases are with the
production of EVs and the bigger and heavier the EV, the more emissions were emitted
for its production. We will find that the high weight and large size of EV are associated
with increased energy consumption.

The EV is a vehicle that is propelled by one or more electric motors, using energy
stored in rechargeable batteries. EVs are environmentally friendly, because they
produce zero direct emissions and they really help to reduce the emissions that
contribute to climate change. But EVs like Audi e-tron (curb weight 2600 kg) or Jaguar
I-Pace (curb weight 2200 kg) are not good examples in the fight against global warming.
Sports car Porsche Taycan (gross weight 6,349 pounds) is too heavy to drive on the
Brooklyn Bridge, NY (it has a weight limit of 6000 pounds). It seems that it is the interest
of the car industry, they want to make bigger, more complex, heavier EVs, because they
can earn more money for selling such vehicles. The high weight of EVs actually matters
a lot. Making steel, aluminum, plastics, batteries, etc, all cause carbon emissions and
environmental problems. Making electric cars heavier means they consume more
electricity, which still has some environmental cost whenever it is made. Heavier cars
produce some other emissions, even when they are electric, for example from tire wear
or non-regenerative braking. Bigger and heavier EV uses bigger Li-ion battery and
bigger battery contains more metals like lithium nickel cobalt, etc. The global demand
for these metals still rises. It is obvious, the automotive industry needs to do something
to make EVs more efficient. Let’s describe some ways to approach improving EV’s
energy economy. First of all we have to analyze what forces act on the EV as it moves.
Movement description of EV

A movement of any EV is affected by several forces acting on it in the direction of

its motion. The main forces acting on the EV are acceleration resistance (Fa),
aerodynamic drag (Fair), rolling resistance (Fr) and grade resistance (Fg).
A tractive force (Ftract) generated by electric propulsion system of the EV has to
overcome resisting forces to propel the EV.

When we substitute values of all these forces above, we get

where 𝑚 is the EV mass, v is the EV velocity, 𝜌air is air density, Cd is the aerodynamic
drag coefficient of the EV, Crr is the rolling resistance coefficient, Af is the projected
frontal area of the EV, α is the road grade, g is acceleration constant.

Fa - acceleration resistance
The acceleration resistance Fa is the force which resists to the tractive force Ftract .
Newton's third law states that for every action there exists an equal and opposite
reaction. When the EV accelerates or decelerates, it will experience positive or negative
inertial resistance.
Acceleration resistance Fa depends on EV’s mass m and the rate of change of velocity
with time - acceleration a.
Fair- aerodynamic drag
The aerodynamic drag is the air resistance against motion of the EV. The forward
motion of the EV pushes the air in front of it, but when the air cannot flow smoothly
along the vehicle, the air pressure in front of the EV increases and it creates zones with
high air pressure. When the air behind the EV cannot immediately fill the space left by
vehicle moving forward, it creates zones with lower air pressure. The high pressure
zones created in the front of the EV push it back, the low pressure zones created in the
rear of the EV pull it back.

Aerodynamic drag Fair depends on the air density 𝜌air, the aerodynamic drag coefficient
of vehicle Cd, the projected frontal area of vehicle Af and square of vehicle’s velocity v

Fr - rolling resistance
The rolling resistance is defined as the friction between a road and a tire. The
rolling coefficient Crr depends on road roughness, road material, tire material, tire
structure, tire temperature, tire pressure, tire tread pattern, etc.
The rolling resistance Fr depends on the EV mass 𝑚, acceleration constant g, is
the rolling resistance coefficient Crr and the road grade α

Fg - grade resistance
The grade resistance is the force, due to gravity, that resists the movement of a
vehicle up a slope or grade. When vehicle goes up the grade resistance is positive,
when goes down grade resistance is negative.

The grade resistance Fg depends on the EV mass 𝑚, acceleration constant g, is the and
the road grade α
Possible ways how to improve energy efficiency of EVs

If we go back to equation that expresses the tractive force Ftract

As we can see, it is obvious if we want to reduce the tractive force Ftract required to
propel the EV, we have to reduce the acceleration resistance (EV’s weight),
aerodynamic drag coefficient Cd of the EV, projected frontal area Af of the EV and rolling
resistance coefficient Crr. There is obvious also, that a driving style has the impact on
amount of required tractive force, aggressive acceleration, a rapid of change of velocity
with time, significantly increases tractive force. During acceleration is very important for
how long the EV’s electric propulsion system operates within high efficiency area.

Weight reduction
Reduction of weight of EV would be possible to achieve using weight-saving
materials like high strength steel, aluminum, magnesium, polymer composites, plastics,
lightweight glazing, etc.
High-strength steel (HSLA) is a type of alloy steel that provides better mechanical
properties and greater resistance to corrosion than carbon steel. Using high-strength
steel reduce vehicle weight by around 25 to 39 percent. BMW, for example, will be
constructing its model i5 in steel and light alloys from 2021, rather than using carbon as
in the i3. Tesla has also converted, with the aluminum and titanium content in its Model
3 recently delivered to foreign markets being reduced in favor of steel (1)

Advanced glazing for EV is the way to further reduce EV’s weight. “The new
Gorilla Glass hybrid window laminate is approximately 25 to 50 percent thinner, and has
equal to, or greater strength than traditional laminate,” according to statement released
by Ford. “Traditional laminate glass ranges from 4 to 6 mm in thickness, where the
Gorilla Glass hybrid window ranges from 3 mm to 4 mm. New chemically-strengthened
glass, reduces the weight of a car windshield by as much as a third, all without
sacrificing toughness. (2)

The weight of the EV has the direct impact on energy consumption, there was
found that energy consumption increases 0.6 ± 0.1 kWh/100 km with each 100 kg of
vehicle mass (3).

Aerodynamic drag coefficient and projected frontal area reduction

The aerodynamic drag resistance is proportional to velocity squared and this
means that aerodynamic drag is one of the keys to achieving better energy efficiency
and thus a longer range of EVs as well. It is possible to notice every minor improvement
to the Cd value, for example exterior side view mirrors increases total aerodynamic drag
by an average of 2 to 7 percent. We can see that such a detail like replacing exterior
side view mirrors with cameras will improve energy efficiency, because smaller
aerodynamic drag. The average modern EVs achieve a drag coefficient of between 0.24
and 0.3. Electric SUV with their typically boxy shapes, typically achieve a
Cd=0.30–0.40.
Here you are examples of drag coefficients Cd of some car models
 Here you are projected frontal area of vehicle Af of some type of vehicles
Vehicle type Mini Lower medium Upper medium Executive Luxury Sports SUV MPV
Frontal area
Af (m2) 1.97 2.16 .2.20 2.05 2.21 1.89 3.21 2.37

Mercedes-Benz EQS with 0.20 Cd will be the world’s most serial producing
aerodynamic car. A fully enclosed front grille with a combination of 19-inch rims also
help in improving the aerodynamics of the car to achieve such drag coefficient. This car
will certainly not be affordable for the masses for sure, but it serves as a technological
demonstrator of a way how to reduce air resistance.

We can see that car industry starts to produce electric SUV with their typically boxy
shapes. If the SUV like vehicle weight is high, you need larger and wider tires. The car
looks very sporty, but it does not reduce its aerodynamic drag coefficient Cd. Plus
because very high aerodynamic resistance, it is necessary to use a large battery pack
to achieve a suitable range for normal use. It leads to larger projected frontal area Af,
because the larger battery pack is bigger in a size. The larger projected frontal area Af
in combination with higher value of the aerodynamic drag coefficient do not help in case
of energy efficiency.
The low aerodynamic drag coefficient Cd in combination with low projected
frontal area Af are particularly very important for EVs, because the more efficient an EV
is, the smaller battery pack is required, which helps to reduce cost and weight and lower
weight, as we described above, helps efficiency even more.

Driving style
Driving style is crucial for an energy consumption of EV and it translates to a
range of course. During the EV’s acceleration is very important if the electric motor
operates within high efficiency area. Aggressive accelerating and driving when the
electric motor operates in low efficient areas significantly decreases energy efficiency.
There is possible to see an efficiency map of the electric motor of Nissan Leaf in picture
bellow.

It was proven that non aggressive - eco-driving reduces electric motor loss by 51%(4)
see picture bellow
 It was also proven that the deceleration by coasting is more energy efficient like
regenerative braking. (4) (5). As we can see, the non-aggressive, so called eco-driving
style is very important in case of energy efficiency, because it saves energy. On the
contrary, aggressive acceleration and deceleration increases energy consumption and
thus the energy efficiency of the EV.

Let’s have some real-world energy consumption of electric vehicles, because the
values ​given by car makers are often much lower than the real values. We found
real-world energy consumption of EVs here:
https://www.spritmonitor.de/en/evaluation/most_economic_electric_vehicles.html

Model kWh/100km
Peugeot iOn 13,9
Hyundai IONIQ 14,2
Citroen Saxo 14,5
Volkswagen Up 14,9
Volkswagen Golf 15,1
Smart Fortwo 16,1
Tesla Motors Model S 20,7
Volkswagen ID.3 20,9
Mazda MX-30 21,5
Mercedes-Benz B-Klasse 21,8
Audi e-tron 25,7

Let’s compare these values with the best selling EV in China that outsold Tesla
Model 3, it is Wuling Hongguang Mini EV Macron.
The Chinese Wuling Hongguang Mini EV Macron is only 2 917 mm long, its curb
weight in 665 kg. This small EV car is equipped with a 9.2 kWh battery capable of a
NEDC range of 120 km or a 13.8 kWh battery capable of a NEDC range of 170 km. Its
price is 43,600 yuan ($6,653)
 We do not have the real-world energy consumption of this adorable chinese EV
at this moment, but if it is true that its range is 170 km with 13.8 kWh battery, the energy
consumption would be 8 kW/100 km. Audi e-tron would drive some 50 km if was
equipped with Wuling Hongguang Mini’s 13.8 kWh battery pack. Sure, we cannot
compare Audi e-tron with Wuling Hongguang Mini EV, because Audi is the high end
luxury EV car, but we can see chinese approach towards mobility, they prefer smaller
EVs in cities and in case of longer journey they take a train.

1,https://www.voestalpine.com/blog/en/mobility/automotive-en/the-role-of-steel-in-electr
omobility/
2, https://info.glass.com/advancing-windshield-technology-lighter-glass/
3, https://enveurope.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12302-020-00307-8#Sec18
4, https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1494893
5, https://bit.ly/3u4cubT