How to Improve Hybrid Vehicles for Environmental Sustainability. A Case Study of Their Impact

ENEA is studying innovative vehicles such as pure electric and hybrid-electric vehicles, aiming to increase their energy efficiency and to reduce pollutant emissions. As part of such activities, a quite large demonstration project for verifying technical and economical viability of hybrid buses under real public transport operation conditions, has been carried out. Furthermore, a controller for an electric hybrid vehicle has been developed that allows to achieve a further 30% fuel economy improvement. The results of such activities are the input information of the TREMOVE model to investigate the potential impact of electric hybrid vehicle deployment in an Italian city, as a case study. The positive effects of new hybrid vehicle introduction for freight transport in terms of fuel saving and emission reduction, have been also investigated.