An Analysis and Comparison of Automotive Propulsion Systems

We analyze a number of existing and proposed automotive propulsion systems and compare their specific energy and specific peak power in terms of mechanical energy delivered from the propulsion system's energy-conversion device. The calculations account for losses due to the energy-conversion process and include the masses of both the fuel (or energy-storage device) and the energy-conversion components. Values used in the comparisons range from the current state of the art, or most-probable forecasts of characteristics to highly optimistic projections of device characteristics. On the basis of this analysis, we estimate the range and acceleration for passenger vehicles utilizing the various propulsion systems. We also examine power-boosted hybrid systems.