Eco-Driving Strategies in Battery Electric Vehicle Use - How Do Drivers Adapt Over Time?

Eco-driving is of high importance when driving battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in terms of prolonging the vehicle's limited range. A longitudinal field study with 40 participants was conducted to examine which eco-driving strategies users know before and after driving a BEV for 3 months. Furthermore, participant's knowledge regarding eco-driving strategies with BEVs against internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) was compared. After 3 months of BEV usage, a driving test was applied in order to investigate the strategies drivers apply to drive energy efficiently and to estimate the effectiveness of these strategies. Results reveal that reported eco-driving strategies for BEVs and ICEVs differ significantly. Users reported significantly more BEV eco-driving strategies after experiencing the BEV for 3 months than before. Furthermore, drivers were able to significantly reduce energy consumption by applying eco-driving strategies in the driving test. Reported eco-driving strategies proved to be effective. The results imply that eco-driving strategies for ICEVs have to be adapted for BEV eco-driving and that drivers gain a deeper understanding of factors that influence energy consumption by experiencing the BEV for a longer period of time. Based on the results, support of the driver through training or assistance systems is recommended.

[1]  A. Frank,et al.  Hybrid vehicles gain traction. , 2006, Scientific American.

[2]  Thomas Franke,et al.  The Timeframe of Adaptation to Electric Vehicle Range , 2013, HCI.

[3]  Masafumi Miyatake,et al.  Theoretical study on Eco-Driving Technique for an Electric Vehicle with Dynamic Programming , 2010, 2010 International Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems.

[4]  Thomas Franke,et al.  ELECTRIC VEHICLES AS A SOLUTION FOR GREEN DRIVING IN THE FUTURE? A FIELD STUDY EXAMINING THE USER ACCEPTANCE OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES , 2010 .

[5]  Cristina Olaverri-Monreal,et al.  How Electric Vehicles Affect Driving Behavioral Patterns , 2014, IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine.

[6]  Thomas Franke,et al.  Research methods to assess the acceptance of EVs - experiences from an EV user study , 2010 .

[7]  John R. Anderson,et al.  Learning and Memory: An Integrated Approach , 1994 .

[8]  A. Kollmuss,et al.  Mind the Gap: Why do people act environmentally and what are the barriers to pro-environmental behavior? , 2002 .

[9]  Michael Sivak,et al.  Eco-driving: Strategic, tactical, and operational decisions of the driver that influence vehicle fuel economy , 2012 .

[10]  D. Norman.  Learning and Memory , 1982 .

[11]  J. Barkenbus.  Eco-driving: An overlooked climate change initiative , 2010 .

[12]  Jacob Cohen.  A Coefficient of Agreement for Nominal Scales , 1960 .

[13]  Thomas Franke,et al.  Driving an EV with no opportunity to charge at home-is this acceptable ? , 2014 .

[14]  Catarina Rolim,et al.  Impacts of Electric Vehicle Adoption on Driver Behavior and Environmental Performance , 2012 .

[15]  Heikki Summala,et al.  Towards Understanding Motivational and Emotional Factors in Driver Behaviour: Comfort Through Satisficing , 2007 .

[16]  Thomas Franke,et al.  Energy recapture through deceleration – regenerative braking in electric vehicles from a user perspective , 2013, Ergonomics.

[17]  Anders af Wåhlberg,et al.  Long-term effects of training in economical driving: Fuel consumption, accidents, driver acceleration behavior and technical feedback , 2007 .

[18]  J. R. Landis,et al.  The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. , 1977, Biometrics.

[19]  J Van Mierlo,et al.  Driving style and traffic measures-influence on vehicle emissions and fuel consumption , 2004 .

[20]  P. Carlo Cacciabue,et al.  Modelling Driver Behaviour in Automotive Environments: Critical Issues in Driver Interactions with Intelligent Transport Systems , 2007 .

[21]  Winston Bennett,et al.  A META-ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONS AMONG TRAINING CRITERIA , 1997 .

[22]  Maximilian Schwalm,et al.  Methods of evaluating electric vehicles from a user's perspective - The MINI E field trial in Berlin , 2011 .

[23]  S. Elo,et al.  Qualitative Content Analysis , 2014 .

[24]  Thomas Engel,et al.  A novel eco-driving application to reduce energy consumption of electric vehicles , 2013, 2013 International Conference on Connected Vehicles and Expo (ICCVE).

[25]  Chris Bingham,et al.  Impact of driving characteristics on electric vehicle energy consumption and range , 2012 .

[26]  Neil Salkind,et al.  Using SPSS for Windows and Macintosh : Analyzing and Understanding Data , 2004 .

[27]  Thomas Franke,et al.  Interacting with limited mobility resources: Psychological range levels in electric vehicle use , 2013 .

[28]  David Baglee,et al.  The effect of driving style on electric vehicle performance, economy and perception , 2012 .

[29]  Phil Blythe,et al.  Electric Vehicle Driving Style and Duty Variation Performance Study , 2010 .

[30]  I. Neumann,et al.  Experiencing Range in an Electric Vehicle: Understanding Psychological Barriers , 2012 .

[31]  I. Neumann,et al.  ADAPTING TO THE RANGE OF AN ELECTRIC VEHICLE – THE RELATION OF EXPERIENCE TO SUBJECTIVELY AVAILABLE MOBILITY RESOURCES , 2012 .

[32]  Mascha C. van der Voort,et al.  A prototype fuel-efficiency support tool , 2001 .