Configuration Analysis of Hybrid Electric Vehicles Based on the Whole Chinese Market

The hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) were first invented to improve fuel economy in vehicles. The architecture of HEVs defines their technical framework, and the question of which HEV architecture has a better fuel economy has already sparked a heated debate. Previous studies have evaluated different HEV architectures by using the fuel economy comparison of individual vehicles, the data is random and the analysis is not systematic, leading to lack of versatility. To investigate the optimal HEV architecture for fuel economy in the Chinese market, This paper statistics and analyzes the parameters of 755 hybrid vehicles launched in the Chinese market from April 2009 to April 2023 from 2 perspectives. The results indicate that the rankings of fuel economy superiority vary across different perspectives. However, it can be concluded that some configurations always have advantages when comparing with another. Based on these differences, it is found that which electromechanical configurations may be required for a hybrid configuration with optimal fuel economy. This analysis offers a comprehensive overview of the fuel economy across various HEV architectures in China, serving as a valuable reference for selecting technical routes.