The individual contribution of automotive components to vehicle fuel consumption

Abstract

Fuel consumption has grown to become a major point of interest as oil reserves are depleted. The purpose of this study is to determine the key components that cause variation in the instantaneous fuel consumption of vehicles and their level of impact using an in-depth literature review of technical papers. The literature is rigorously screened using an algorithm that excluded unreliable studies by criteria defined herein. Papers that are identified using this strategy are stratified according to vehicle subsystem and component. Relationships are established between external factors and fuel consumption using linear regression models and ranked by level of importance. Results show that coolant, air conditioning, alternator, rolling resistance and lubricants have an impact on vehicle fuel consumption and its variation. More specifically, coolant flow rate, oil viscosity, ambient temperature and tire pressure are found to be significant factors to fuel economy for the automobile.