CHANGES IN ELECTRIC CAR ENERGY CONSUMPTION DEPENDING ON MASS

Abstract

The use of electric cars has developed rapidly in the last 10 years. The capacity of car batteries has increased. Initially, batteries with a capacity of 16-22 kWh were used, while today the batteries of modern electric cars have at least 3 times more capacity. The main disadvantage of any type of battery is the low specific energy density per kilogram of battery mass. Liquid fuel used in most vehicles today has one of the highest energy densities. This means that a liquid fuel tank with a relatively small mass can store and transport a much larger amount of energy than can be stored in the batteries of an electric car. The research designed and tested an analytical algorithm for calculating the energy consumed, depending on the change in the mass of electric cars. By choosing an electric car with a lighter battery, it is possible to achieve significant savings in reducing environmental pollution. Lower capacity and mass batteries consume less energy and raw material resources. Electric cars equipped with lower mass batteries can achieve more economical operation due to lower energy consumption per kilometre. However, the use of lower-capacity batteries in electric cars is not in line with the current trends in electric cars because car users want to get the same driving range per charge from electric cars as from internal combustion cars. The solution to the use of low-capacity batteries in electric cars can be found by introducing a new infrastructure, such as battery swap stations, inductive charging lanes on roads and other modern infrastructures. The analytical part of the research analysed various impacts of the mass of an electric car on the energy consumed. From the perspective of energy consumed, electric cars with lighter batteries, e.g. a Citroen CZero and a Renault Zoe, are more efficient than those examined.