Automakers are constantly working on lightweighting strategies to reduce vehicle fuel consumption, improve performance, and now with electric vehicles, improve the driving range. As they make changes to the vehicle design, they must assess the resulting environmental impacts. They want to answer the question, “What are the effects of vehicle lightweighting on fuel consumption and acceleration performance?” The Malen-Geyer Parsimonious Powertrain Models answers this question by estimating lightweighting impacts for internal combustion engines (ICE), Plug-In Hybrid Vehicles (PHEV) and Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) powertrain performances with a small number of inputs.
The Models, one that evaluates ICE performance, and another that evaluates PHEV and BEV performances, were developed by Dr. Don Malen, adjunct professor at the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering, and Dr. Roland Geyer, professor of Industrial Ecology at the University of California Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science and creator of the UCSB Automotive Energy and GHG Model.