Assessing the Energy Consumption and Driving Range of the QUIET Project Demonstrator Vehicle

This article summarises the experimental testing campaign performed at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) on the demonstrator battery electric vehicle (BEV) of the European Union Horizon 2020 research project QUIET. The project, launched in October 2017, aimed at developing an improved and energy-efficient electric vehicle with increased driving range under real-world driving conditions, focusing on three areas: improved energy management, lightweight materials with enhanced thermal insulation properties, and improved safety and comfort. A heating, venting, and air conditioning (HVAC) system based on the refrigerant R290 (propane), a phase change material (PCM) thermal storage system, infrared heating panels in the near field of the passengers, lightweight materials for seat internal structures, and composite vehicle doors with a novel atomically precise manufacturing (APM) aluminium foam are all the breakthrough technologies installed on the QUIET demonstrator vehicle. All these innovative technologies allow the energetic request for cooling and heating the cabin of the demonstrator vehicle under different driving conditions and the weight of the vehicle components (e.g., doors, windshields, seats, heating, and air conditioning) to be reduced by about 28%, leading to an approximately 26% driving range increase under both hot (40 °C) and cold (−10 °C) weather conditions.