Energy Consumption of a Battery Electric Vehicle Used for City-Airport Trips: a Case Study in an Andean Region

The present investigation aims to determine the energy consumption of a battery electric vehicle (BEV) on the suburban route Loja - Camilo Ponce Enriquez Airport in Catamayo, southern Ecuador. Initially, using the OBD Link Mx+ device and LabView software, the vehicle speed and position, current, voltage and battery state of charge (SoC) are monitored at a frequency of 1 Hz, performing 15 round trips considering the effects of the road gradient. Subsequently, using the fundamental theory of vehicle dynamics, the energy consumption of the EV is obtained in Matlab Simulink. The typical driving cycle (TDC) of the vehicle on the study route, both for the outbound and the return trip, is defined by applying the Weighted Minimum Difference method, whose characteristic parameters are the energies of the various forces opposing the vehicle’s motion. For the outbound trip, the TDC corresponds to trip 13 with an energy consumption of 6.09 kWh, while for the return trip, the TDC corresponds to trip 4 with an energy consumption of 10.53 kWh. For both trips, the energy demanded by the rolling resistance stands out first, with 59.4% and 67.7%, respectively. Battery energy consumption for the entire trip is 14.66 kWh, equivalent to an energy performance of 5.11 km/kWh, with more than 98% of energy regenerated for the outbound trip and 20% for the return trip.