Optimal Sizing and Cost Analysis of Battery/Supercapacitor Alone and in Combination for E-Rickshaw Application

The electric mobility in India was initiated by Electric-Rickshaws (E-rickshaws), which are one of the popular alternative to Internal Combustion engine based auto rickshaws in major cities. Regardless of the numerous benefits like eco-friendliness, no noise pollution, etc., E-rickshaws are restricted in terms of energy storage devices. Presently, the most widely used energy storage devices in E-rickshaws are lead-acid batteries. In this paper, a case study has been carried out in order to perform a cost analysis of best possible Energy Storage System (ESS)/Hybrid Energy Storage System (HESS) in an E-rickshaw on a known route. In view of the actual operating characteristics, a real driving mission has been recorded with the help of Global Positioning System within an academic campus. Further, the optimal sizing has been done using Particle Swarm Optimization for eight different ESS/HESS configurations, considering lithium-ion battery, lead-acid battery and Supercapacitor as energy storage devices. Afterwards, the performance of all the chosen ESS/HESS has been compared with the help of detailed cost analysis over a vehicle span of 5 and 10 years. Results show that, active topology based lithium-ion battery and supercapacitor prove to be the best choices in 5 and 10 years of vehicle lifetime respectively.