Representative Driving Cycles for Light Commercial Vehicles Based on Their Usage Profiles

This study describes a methodology for synthesizing representative driving cycles for light commercial vehicles. The focus is on taking the usage profiles of these vehicles into account in the driving cycle synthesis. In this methodology, representative routes are simulated using the example of light commercial vehicles in the craft sector. The results of these simulations are representative speed distributions and representative height fluctuations. These results are then used as target values for the actual driving cycle synthesis. Furthermore, measurement runs are carried out with a light commercial vehicle to create a database of real-world driving data. The measurement runs include different urban, rural, and motorway sections and cover a total distance of approximately 510 km. Routes with flatter and more challenging elevation profiles are driven. During the measurement runs, the speed signal and the altitude signal are measured. These signals are then processed and cut into short segments, each consisting of a speed and altitude profile. This is followed by the actual driving cycle synthesis, in which those segments with suitable height fluctuations are assembled according to the representative speed distributions. This paper examines three different usage profiles of light commercial vehicles in three different cities in Germany. These three cities are Ulm (large city), Stuttgart (metropolitan region), and Munderkingen (small town in rural region). The results of these three analyses show considerable differences both in the calculated speed distributions and in the calculated height fluctuations. For example, the usage profile in the rural region of Munderkingen shows significantly higher rural proportions than the usage profile in the Stuttgart metropolitan region. Furthermore, the analysis in Stuttgart shows a much higher height fluctuation than the usage profile in Ulm. These differences highlight the need to take vehicle usage profiles into account in the driving cycle synthesis.