Analysis of Medium Duty Hybrid-Electric Truck Technologies using Electricity, Diesel, and CNG/LNG as the Fuel for Port and Delivery Applications

This paper is concerned with the analysis of the fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions from medium duty trucks (MDT) using various alternative powertrain/fuel combinations for deliveries in urban and intercity service. The powertrain/fuel combinations considered included hybrid-electric designs consisting of a diesel engine, electric motor, and a lithium battery, a CNG engine, electric motor, and lithium battery, battery powered, and a hydrogen fuel cell. Simulation were performed for a number of driving cycles appropriate for these applications using a special version of the ADVISOR program developed at UC Davis. Comparisons are given of the economics of the various options in terms vehicle initial price differences and the breakeven fuel prices for the various alternative fuels. The comparisons are made for today’s costs (2014) and future costs (2025) including expected improvements in technology. Special attention is given to the use of natural gas in the delivery trucks. For the medium-duty trucks, the economic results using today’s technologies and costs indicated that CNG conventional trucks are attractive in most urban applications for a range of annual VMT and payback time combinations. CNG-hybrid vehicles were also attractive under 26K VMT/3 year payback scenarios. In 2025, all the powertrain/fuel combinations are attractive in varying degrees due to the improvements in fuel economy and the reduction in component costs.