All-electric range (AER) is the maximum driving range of an

electric vehicle An electric vehicle (EV) is a vehicle that uses one or more electric motors for propulsion. It can be powered by a collector system, with electricity from extravehicular sources, or it can be powered autonomously by a battery (sometimes cha ...

using only power from its on-board battery pack to traverse a given driving cycle. In the case of an all-electric vehicle, it means the maximum range per recharge. For a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), it means the maximum range in charge-depleting mode, as PHEVs can travel considerably further in charge-sustaining mode which utilizes both

fuel A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy but ...

combustion and the on-board battery pack. Calculating AER is made more complicated in PHEVs because of variations in

drivetrain A drivetrain (also frequently spelled as drive train or sometimes drive-train) is the group of components that deliver mechanical power from the prime mover to the driven components. In automotive engineering, the drivetrain is the components o ...

design. A vehicle like the

Fisker Karma The Fisker Karma is a luxury plug-in range-extended electric sports sedan produced by Fisker Automotive in 2012. The cars were manufactured at Valmet Automotive in Finland. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rated th ...

that uses a serial hybrid design has a clear AER. Similarly a vehicle like the

Chevrolet Volt The Chevrolet Volt is a plug-in hybrid manufactured by General Motors, also marketed in rebadged variants as the Holden Volt in Australia and New Zealand and the Buick Velite 5 in China, and with a different fascia as the Vauxhall Ampera in th ...

which disengages the

internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal combus ...

(ICE) from the drivetrain while in electric mode has a clear AER, however blend-mode PHEVs which use the ICE and

electric motor An electric motor is an Electric machine, electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a Electromagneti ...

in conjunction do not have a clear AER because they use both gasoline and electricity at the same time. ''Equivalent AER'' is the AER of vehicles following this architecture. One example of this calculation can be found in Argonne National Labs report titled "TEST PROCEDURES AND BENCHMARKING Blended-Type and EV-Capable Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles." This procedure uses the formula below to calculate an equivalent AER for vehicles that operate in blended mode: :

\text_\text = \left (1-\frac\right ) d^

Where GPM_CD designates efficiency in charge-depleting mode, and GPM_CS charge-sustaining mode as designated and ''d''^CD is distance in charge depleting mode. A

plug-in hybrid A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is a hybrid electric vehicle whose battery pack can be recharged by plugging a charging cable into an external electric power source, in addition to internally by its on-board internal combustion engin ...

's all-electric range is designated by PHEV-''(miles)'' or PHEV-''(kilometers)'' km representing the distance the vehicle can travel on battery power alone. For example, a PHEV-20 can travel 20 miles without using its internal combustion engine, or about 32 kilometers, so it may also be designated as PHEV32km.

References

{{reflist Electric vehicles

See also

References