A new data logger developed by Fraunhofer researchers simultaneously collects data from vehicles with combustion engines, electric drives, external sensors, and location data, and permits the development of new hybrid and electric vehicles. Once installed in a car, it records all the relevant operational data from the trips the car makes over a period of several weeks or months, enabling evaluation of how a car is used, including characteristics such as route profiles or driving style – when does the driver drive more cautiously, when more aggressively?
Analyses allow fleet operators to understand exactly how existing vehicles are deployed and enables them to always allocate the right vehicle to a particular driver. Use scenarios that include route profiles and their respective energy needs allow operators to judge whether future investment in their fleets should go towards the procurement of vehicles with a combustion engine, or purely electric vehicles, or hybrid vehicles.