Slipstream cooperative adaptive cruise control — A conceptual ITS application for electric vehicles

The Electric Vehicle is seen to be one of the most important enablers for a more environmentally friendly mobility of people. Unfortunately, state of the art electric vehicles suffer from a series of problems, with facing a very limited traveling distance compared to gasoline vehicles being one of the most relevant ones. In this paper we present an approach how to reduce the energy consumption while traveling over longer distances by using the slipstream effect behind a vehicle ahead. We show how this can be implemented as a specialized form of cooperative adaptive cruise control, one of the innovative Intelligent Transportation System applications. The paper elaborates in detail on the reliability of the application from the perspective of the current ITS communication technology, by means of two example scenarios, and outlines also on other aspects of implementing Slipstream Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control for electric vehicles.