Economic Performance of Solar Assisted Battery and Supercapacitor based E-Rickshaw

E-rickshaws have gained significant attention as green and sustainable transport alternative to conventional fossil fuel based auto rickshaws in shaping the rural and urban mobility of India as well as most of the Asian countries. Energy storage system is the main attribute contributing to the technical and economical aspects of an E-rickshaw throughout its lifetime. Lead-acid batteries are the widely used energy storage device in conventional E-rickshaws; and it is important to extend the lifetime of these batteries. Taking this into consideration, we evaluate the possibilities of upgrading the conventional E-rickshaw in terms of energy generation and storage systems for the techno-economic benefit. In this line, we consider the incorporation of solar photovoltaic (PV) panel to assist E-rickshaw with i) conventional lead-acid battery ii) supercapacitor (SC) and iii) combination of both the battery and the SC as energy storage system. For evaluation, we consider a real drive cycle. All the considered E-rickshaw configurations are modelled and simulated in MATLAB environment to analyse the economic benefits of the solar assisted E-rickshaw over the conventional E-rickshaw for a vehicle lifespan of 10 years. The results indicate that the solar assisted E-rickshaws are economically beneficial in comparison to the conventional one. Moreover, SC storage is the best option for this particular and similar drive cycle with frequent start stop provided grid charging facilities are available in the terminals.