ABSTRACT
A plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) is recently developed
technology and it will be put in the market in the near
future. In existing hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), it was
possible to suppress the petroleum consumption by
regenerating the kinetic energy of vehicles during
deceleration into electrical energy. A PHEV can use
petroleum fuel as with traditional vehicles including HEV,
and in addition, use the electrical energy supplied from
the commercial power for running energy. That is, the
existing HEV technology suppresses petroleum energy
consumption. In contrast, the PHEV technology
alternates part of vehicle drive petroleum energy with
electric energy. Commercial electric generation can use
many kinds of energy source other than the fossil oil.
PHEV is a promising technology to reduce the well to
wheel CO2 emission and one of the solutions for energy
security issue. On the other hand, from the point of view
of vehicle emission and fuel consumption performance
evaluation, current test protocols cannot produce
sufficient response to the peculiarities of PHEV, which
use two kinds of energy source, such as petroleum fuel
and electrical power and fuel consumption ratio which
changes depending on the mileage. New test protocol
for PHEV is anticipated. Information of battery durability
and reliability are also anticipated. Since electric-motor
vehicles (including PHEV) use electrical power to
actually drive the vehicle, performance of the battery
which stores electrical power has direct affect on
emission, fuel consumption performance and electric
drive range. In this paper, the measurement methods
for fuel consumption for PHEV and the concept of type
approval test protocol for PHEV in Japan, which are
currently being considered, will be discussed.