A computational study of the impacts of driving aggressiveness on fuel consumption sensitivity in a parallel HEV

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) have an advantage over their conventional counterparts interms of reducing fuel consumption and meeting increasingly stringent emission reductioncriteria. Nonetheless, the variation in fuel consumption due to differences in driving style andbehaviour under real-world driving conditions is greater in HEVs than in the conventionalones. A reduction in variability of fuel consumption is hence of compelling relevance for designand optimization of HEVs. This work employs vehicle powertrain simulations to analyze theeffects of driving style on fuel consumption sensitivity in parallel HEVs for a range of trafficconditions. The driving aggressiveness is modeled using velocity-scaling and acceleration-scalingmethods, respectively, to account for various velocity characteristics and accelerationlevels. Hybrid powertrain simulations assess and quantify the impacts of the engineperformance, as well as the significance of the energy recovered by regenerative braking. Theresults presented in this paper provide valuable inputs for optimal control of HEVs to meetcustomer driving needs and expectations