Reports from a new study conducted on real-world driving conditions state hybrid cars to be more beneficial in India and China as they would be in the US. As per researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), “What makes cities in India and China so frustrating to drive in – heavy traffic, aggressive driving style, few freeways – makes them ideal for saving fuel with hybrid vehicles.”
Indian-origin scientist Anand Gopal, who is also a lead researcher for the study said, “Currently greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector in India and China are a smaller piece of the pie compared with other sectors. But vehicle ownership is going to skyrocket in these countries. That is why we decided to focus on this area. Hybrid and electric vehicles can significantly reduce carbon emissions and other pollutants.” The test result were based on studies conducted in real world conditions. Test in China were conducted using three types of hybrid power-trains namely - start-stop, parallel and power-split around 11 cities in the Chinese continent. For India, researchers used the Modified Indian Drive Cycle pattern and referred to published studies conducted in two Indian cities namely New Delhi and Pune. As per report, driving around in a hybrid car came with about 47% to 48% saving in India, whereas savings of about 53% to 55% was noted in China.
Anand Gopal further added, “With the official fuel economy test procedure currently used in India, fuel savings for hybrids are fairly grossly underestimated, showing only a 29 per cent savings over conventional vehicles. The test cycle is not representative of driving conditions in India, so that’s sending the wrong signal to the consumer.”
In recent time many car-makers have been working on developing Hybrid cars for the Indian market. The Government has also supported the initiative with certain percentage of rebate to the manufacturing sector with an aim to encourage the alternative technology.
