Abstract
The world‟s population is rapidly migrating to urban areas due to economic opportunities and studies suggest that this trend continues. This rapid growth increases the challenges for personal urban mobility such as air pollution, Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) and traffic congestion. Road transportation is a major source of air pollution in urban areas causing numerous health concerns. Improvements in automobile technology over the past several decades have resulted in reducing conventional vehicle tailpipe emissions to exceptionally low levels. This transformation has been attained mainly through advancements in engine and transmission technologies and through partial electrification of vehicles. However, the technological advancements made so far alone will not be able to mitigate the issues due to increasing GHGs and air pollution in urban areas. Electrification of propulsion systems may play a significant role in overcoming the challenges associated with personal urban mobility. In this paper, various urban vehicle concepts that can address these challenges are presented. These concepts are incorporated into a vehicle math model and they are analyzed using an in-house simulation tool. Various advanced propulsion system architectures are presented and their benefits relative to conventional propulsion systems are assessed.
Keywords: Urban Vehicles, Propulsion System Architectures, Battery Electric Vehicles, Extended Range Electric Vehicles, Auxiliary Power Units, Well-to-Wheels