Study on real-world performance of electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers under heterogeneous traffic conditions: a case study in West Bengal State, India

The present study discusses on real-world operating scenario of widely accepted electric vehicles - electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers. Use of electric three-wheelers remains majorly restricted to developing regions, whereas electric two-wheelers have a widespread stakeholder base. However, the majority of these vehicles demonstrate maximum speed of 25 km/h, constrained by design specifications. Study revealed that electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers exhibited specific energy consumption of 28.67 Wh/pkm and 43.25 Wh/pkm, respectively, based on a case study for the state of West Bengal, India. Predominant charging regime of target vehicles from domestic source, powered by nationalized grid, leads to high use-phase emission, on a plant-to-wheel approach. Results on traffic dynamic behavior revealed that target electric variants pose to be potential candidates augmenting congestion effect on already running conventional traffic. Hence, two scenarios need to be addressed: (a) regulating the operation of low-speed electric vehicles and (b) optimizing the parameters governing use-phase emissions. [GRAPHICS] .