Representative Driving Cycles for Trinidad and Tobago with Slope Profiles for Electric Vehicles

Abstract

The rise of plug-in battery electric vehicles presents an excellent opportunity for small island developing states such as those of the Caribbean. The vehicles offer improved energy efficiency, enhanced energy security, and reduced foreign exchange expenditure. Incentivizing the uptake of electric vehicles seems to be an obvious policy decision, but there could be unintended consequences. Real-world driving cycles are essential for validating electric-vehicle energy and economic benefits using simulation studies. In drive-cycle methodologies, the microtrip method is the preferred choice for countrywide representation and is ideal for fuel consumption estimations. This paper reports on the first such real-world driving cycle for the Caribbean, specifically Trinidad and Tobago, which is developed using a microtrip construction method with a novel approach to establishing a slope profile. Highway and suburban segments show some distinct characteristics, including relatively high average accelerations and decelerations in the highway and suburban cycles and low average speeds of 40.2 km/h (highway) and 21.74 km/h (suburban). The driving cycle is unique but reasonable when compared with others derived in emerging economies.