Hybrid Electric Vehicles, 2nd Edition

Preface To the First Edition

It is well recognized today that, technologies of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs) are vital to the overall automotive industry and also to the user, in terms of both better fuel economy and a better effect on the environment. Over the past decade, these technologies have taken a significant leap forward. As they have developed, the literature in the public domain has also grown accordingly, in the form of publications in conference proceedings and journals, and also in the form of textbooks and reference books. Why then was the effort made to write this book? The question is legitimate. The authors observed that existing textbooks have topics like drive cycle, fuel economy, and drive technology as their main focus. In addition, the authors felt that the main focus of such textbooks was on regular passenger automobiles. It is against this backdrop that the authors felt a wider look at the technology was necessary. By this, it is meant that HEV technology is one which is applicable not just to regular automobiles, but also to other vehicles such as locomotives, off‐road vehicles (construction and mining vehicles), ships, and even to some extent to aircraft. The authors believe that the information probably exists, but not specifically in textbook form where the overall viewpoint is included. In fact, HEV technology is not new – a slightly different variant of it was present many years ago in diesel–electric locomotives. ...