Special Issue “Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV)”

Abstract

Climate change, urban air quality, and dependency on crude oil are important societal challenges. In the transportation sector especially, clean and energy-efficient technologies must be developed. Electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) have gained a growing interest in the vehicle industry. Nowadays, the commercialization of EVs and PHEVs has been possible in different applications (i.e., light duty, medium duty, and heavy duty vehicles) thanks to the advances in energy-storage systems, power electronics converters (including DC/DC converters, DC/AC inverters, and battery charging systems), electric machines, and energy efficient power flow control strategies. This Special Issue is focused on the recent advances in electric vehicles and (plug-in) hybrid vehicles that address the new powertrain developments and go beyond the state-of-the-art (SOTA).

Aging Passenger Car Fleet Structure, Dynamics, and Environmental Performance Evaluation at the Regional Level by Life Cycle Assessment

“…Most of these studies focused on comparing different materials or technological options from an eco-design perspective in order to improve the environmental performance of the vehicle [6]. In this respect, most of the LCA research compares the environmental performance of different powertrain systems (mostly petrol and diesel vehicles, the so-called internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs)) to different types and configurations of electric-powered ones: battery electric vehicles (BEVs) [7], plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) [8,9], and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) [10,11]. These studies usually focus on discussing GHG emissions [12] or the climate change effects of ICEVs [13] versus those caused by the production, use, and postuse impacts of electric vehicles and batteries [14] and the corresponding emission transfer caused by the market uptake of these new products [15,16].…”