Evaluating impact of electrified vehicles on fuel consumption and CO2 emissions reduction in Lebanese driving conditions using onboard GPS survey

Abstract

Reviewing past and current mobility assessments for the Lebanese road transport sector, road mobility demand has experienced a real explosion since 1990, and the trend is strongly upward over the decade to come. This growth is mainly attributed to the raise of daily passenger trips and the increase of car ownership. Moreover, this increase in mobility demand results in severe congestion, mostly in Greater Beirut Area (GBA), which leads to chaotic traffic conditions. As a result, Lebanese citizens are suffering from high budget required for transport, high dependence on fossil fuels, in addition to high pollution level particularly in urban areas. Therefore, reducing the fuel consumption and emissions of Lebanese road transport, particularly for passenger cars, has become a must. Electrification of conventional Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles (ICEV) nowadays appears as an effective solution of paramount importance for car manufacturers, facing the challenge of minimizing the consumption of the road transport. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to present latest technological advancements of hybrid electric vehicles and to assess their impacts in terms of fuel savings in Lebanese urban driving conditions. The logic of vehicle electrification is outlined first by presenting the technological advantages with respect to conventional vehicles. Then the paper addresses a tank-to-wheel energy consumption comparison and an operating costs comparison between several hybrid electric vehicle types and a reference conventional vehicle, on real world driving cycles, representative of GBA driving conditions. Driving cycles are collected during a survey on real route in GBA using onboard GPS devices equipped with data loggers. Finally, an assessment of fuel consumption and CO2 emissions of the Lebanese car fleet is presented, in addition to a methodology for creating mitigation scenarios serving to reduce consumption and emissions by 2020.