Feasibility, emission and fuel requirement analysis of hybrid car versus solar electric car: a comparative study

The problem regarding environment has been considered as contemporary issue, and to cater this, various technologies have been revolutionized in vehicle transport field. Efforts have been made to make vehicle engine efficient and introducing hybridized vehicles with the aim of reducing emissions and less fuel dependency. In essence of this, trends of solar electric cars in different countries have been reviewed. Feasibility analysis is done by doing fuel cost analysis of two cases, i.e., simple hybrid vehicle and hybrid vehicle equipped with solar module and increased battery energy storage capacity for a specific round trip distance between two cities, i.e., Rawalpindi and Islamabad in comparison with feasibility of third case, i.e., proposed solar electric car model. The solar module selection along with desired number of batteries with charging and discharging time and motor power required to carry five persons weight (70 kg each) is calculated for third case. Moreover, total carbon dioxide emission analysis has been carried out from car material production to its assembly, manufacturing solar module and nickel metal hydride battery for each case. The annual carbon dioxide emitted from fuel in first two cases relative to electric outlet in third case for specific distance has been analyzed. On large scale, emission analyses for hundred cars of each case have been done at 100 km distance. From calculations, it is revealed that overall emissions in third case on large scale and from its material production, assembly, solar module and batteries manufacturing perspective are comparatively less than other cases.