Impact of Additional PV Weight on the Energy Consumption of Electric Vehicles With Onboard PV

Photovoltaics (PV) in onboard vehicle applications adds weight to an electric vehicle (EV), increasing the overall energy consumption. Although the added PV system weight is small compared with the vehicle weight, the power generated by PV is also very small compared with the power needed to propel an EV, making the effect of additional PV system weight on energy consumption a nontrivial topic to analyze. We present a method to study the impact of the vehicle onboard PV weight on the energy balance of EVs for different vehicle-added PV and vehicle-integrated PV configurations. The results are expressed through a newly introduced parameter called “onboard PV yield factor,” where positive values indicate a net energy gain and negative values indicate a net energy loss of the onboard PV system. Simulations are carried out to highlight the methodology for the driving phase of a medium and large passenger electric car with onboard PV for a selection of trips. Our method calculates the energy consumption attributable to the added PV system weight and PV energy yield for the selected trips. Our results for these sample simulations for the driving phase show a large range of yield factors, indicating the importance of systematically studying the impact of onboard vehicle PV weight.