A Study of Parameters Influencing Energy Consumption of an Electric Vehicle

The electric vehicle market has seen very gradual growth due to increasing cost of the vehicles. To improve commercial viability, it is imperative to optimize the overall efficiency of the vehicle. This necessitates optimizing the range of EV and energy consumption. This paper presents sensitivity analysis of variables that influence the energy efficiency. A multivariate analysis, taking into account motor characteristics, driver behavior and other variables will be done over multiple simulations. To identify the major factors contributing towards range improvement, the simulation is run on drive cycles varying from legislative drive cycles such as NEDC, MIDC and WLTP to real world driving cycles. Parameters studied include vehicle weight, battery specific energy, rolling resistance, drag, driver behavior, and gearbox ratios among other controllable factors. The findings presented here can enable the adoption of a more focused approach, allowing further optimization of range and cost-benefit for EVs in the future.