The emissions of CO2 gas caused by transport in urban areas are increasingly serious, and the public transport sector plays a vital role in society, especially when considering the increased demands for mobility. New energy technologies in urban mobility are being introduced, as evidenced by the electric vehicle. We evaluated the positive environmental effects in terms of CO2 emissions that would be produced by the replacement of conventional urban transport bus fleets by electric buses. The simulation of an electric urban bus conceptual model is presented as a case study. The model is validated using the speed and height profiles of the most representative route within the city of Madrid—the C1 line. We assumed that the vehicle fleet is charged using the electric grid at night, when energy demand is low, the cost of energy is low, and energy is produced with a large provision of renewable energy, principally wind power. For the results, we considered the percentage of fleet replacement and the Spanish electricity mix. The analysis shows that by gradually replacing the current fleet of buses by electric buses over 10 years (2020 to 2030), CO2 emissions would be reduced by up to 92.6% compared to 2018 levels.
This article analyses the energy behaviour of an electric golf car as the penultimate step to developing a fuel cell electric light-duty vehicle. The configuration used is that of an extended range electric vehicle with a fuel cell (FCEREV). The system includes two energy storage sources to drive the powertrain: the first consists of using energy stored in a lead-acid battery pack and the second consists of hydrogen stored in metal hydrides and its use is based on a 200 W polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) type fuel cell. The type of system also allows charging the vehicle by connecting it to the electrical grid. The aim of the proposed design is to extend the autonomy of the golf car allowing it to make several trips in one day without having to charge it by connecting it to the electrical grid, considering the large amount of time this would take. The analysis of the performance has been set based on the current regulation and is therefore within the range for these types of vehicles. This arrangement extends autonomy by 38% as opposed to the pure EV electrical mode, which allows for making at least two more trips with a hydrogen tank filled with 0.085 kg H2.