Energy-efficient Routing of Electric Vehicles with Integrated Photovoltaic Installations

This paper investigates the potential output power of photovoltaic (PV) installations on top of battery-powered electric vehicles (BEVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). By choosing different routes within urban areas, we expect different output power levels from the vehicle’s PV installation. Hence, we calculate energy profiles to estimate the PV energy which can be gained during driving conditions to choose the most energy-efficient route for BEVs and HEVs. While driving duration, driving distance and traffic conditions are some of the criteria within the decision-making process of routing algorithms, in this paper, we focus on energy-efficiency of routing algorithms. We present experimental data to highlight the importance of energy profiles for improving and maximising of the electrical driving distance of BEVs and HEVs.