Comparative measurements of the energy consumption of 51 electric, hybrid and internal combustion engine vehicles

This paper presents the measured energy consumption of a range of "fuel efficient" vehicles over a 57 mile urban/extra-urban route. The results show that on average the electric vehicles used the least amount of energy (0.62 MJ/km average), followed by the hybrid vehicles (1.14 MJ/km), and internal combustion engine vehicles (1.68 MJ/km). Estimates of CO(2) emissions finds that hybrids gave the lowest CO(2) emissions, with around half of the vehicles emitting less than 70 g CO(2)/km. The most efficient diesel combustion engine vehicles emitted about 80 g CO(2)/km but the majority exceeded 110 g CO(2)/km. The majority of electric vehicles emitted 70-110 g CO(2)/km assuming a UK grid average emissions factor of 542 g CO(2)/km. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.