Abstract
Research and/or Engineering Questions/Objective
Especially in urban areas, the increasing demand of mobility needs to be faced with resource-efficient and sustainable technical and logistical solutions. Innovative urban vehicle concepts can contribute to an efficient utilization of infrastructure and energy. In contrary, mobility and transport demand of users may restrict the usability of this vehicle size classes due to limited space and range. This can be experienced as a disadvantage in comparison with standard passenger cars. In this context, the present study discusses the pros and cons of selected innovative vehicle types as a part of new urban mobility concepts.
Methodology
In a first step, the present publication points to the potential of new small and lightweight vehicle concepts for urban traffic, based on the determination of representative real-user mobility scenarios and transport demands. For that purpose, multimodal mobility scenarios have been created, integrating city cars and public transport to achieve comprehensive mobility solutions. In a second step, the energy demand, CO2 equivalent emission and parking space reduction potential is simulated for different scenarios.
Results A comparison of a conventional vehicle fleet and selected innovative multimodal mobility scenarios highlights the potential of new vehicle and mobility concepts for urban individual transport. Focus is put on the entire life-cycle behavior of the cars (including effort for production), as well as the reduction of space requirements, energy demand and GHG emissions. In addition, the application of small city car concepts driven by alternative propulsion systems is discussed.
Limitations of this study
A part of the study is based on information from publications of various manufacturers and supplier; in this way, the results represent an averaged behaviour. The determination of traffic space demand considers the required space for parking only. Although the user demand on urban mobility has been gathered by a field test, the simulation is based on some synthetic models, e.g. of the urban cars.
What does the paper offer that is new in the field including in comparison to other work by the authors?
Considering requirements of future traffic scenarios in congested areas and prospective customer demands, the presented study includes an evaluation of several system approaches and vehicle technologies for urban mobility. It highlights potentials regarding energy, GHG emissions and space reduction under consideration of real user’s mobility scenarios.
Conclusions
The presented study treats a comparison of various mobility solutions over the entire life cycle under the boundary conditions of different kinds of urban usage profiles and it points to the CO2 reduction potentials and limits of diverse mobility technologies.
KEYWORDS : Mobility, Life Cycle Assessment, city vehicles, urban car concepts, resource demand reduction