Rapid Energy Consumption Assessment of Vehicle Concepts for Public Transport Systems without Detailed Deployment Data

Abstract

The energy consumption per passenger per kilometre and the total energy consumption of the system are two important criteria in the vehicle concept evaluation for a public transport system. However, the calculation of these two values mainly depends on the trip characteristics of the public transport system, including the trip length and the occupancy of vehicles, which are not readily available to public. The analysis of the massive trip data requires strong computational power and thus long processing time, which is not appropriate for the early phase design of vehicle concept. To calculate the energy consumption of a public transport system, this paper introduces a novel approach only based on variables that are generally open to public, including daily fleet mileage and the daily total ridership. This approach can be rapidly implemented for different vehicles and different public transport systems. Therefore, it can be used for a rapid evaluation of the vehicle concept designs for specific public transport systems. The approach is also useful for power grid planners to quickly decide if the infrastructure is ready for the electrification of the public transport system.