DOI: 10.1177/01445987251406638 ISSN: 0144-5987

Integrated standalone electric vehicle configurations with hybrid energy savings: Namibia intercity transportation case study

Chinedu T Obe, Tayo Badrudeen, Oliver O Apeh, Nnamdi Nwulu

This paper presents a hybridized standalone electric vehicle (EV) design using hybrid energy storage system to solve the critical transportation issues in a grid-constrained environment, such as the city of Namibia. The suggested system integrates onboard regenerative braking and solar photovoltaic arrays of 3 kW (peak) to serve as the grid independent and obtain the substantial values of energy efficiency. This entails an innovative hybrid energy storage design, which combines both lithium-ion batteries and ultracapacitors banks where both the battery and the ultracapacitors can optimally store charge, with the battery to sustain the main power supply, and ultracapacitors to manages the peak loads on transient events such as acceleration and regenerative braking. The design uses automatic changeover system control in which it gives preference to the supply of solar and smooth integration of recovered kinetic energy in deceleration. Simulation findings indicate that the solar photovoltaic can supply about 25% of the daily energy demand, and the hybrid storage approach receives regenerative braking recovery rates of 20–25% in intercity cycles, which is far greater than the normal EV performance of 10–15%. The ultracapacitor subsystem can be charged 60–80% state-of-charge during an event of braking; this helps a great deal in relieving strain of battery by far over 2000 cycles. The comparative analysis indicates a high battery to wheel efficiency of 85% to 90%, low energy costs (0.19 NAD/km) than the traditional plug-in hybrid vehicles. Climate-adaptive building offers sustainable mobility with economic and energy benefits.

More from our Archive