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The Future Automotive Systems Technology Simulator (FASTSim) is a high-level advanced vehicle powertrain systems analysis tool supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Vehicle Technologies Office. FASTSim provides a quick and simple approach to compare powertrains and estimate the impact of technology improvements on light- and heavy-duty vehicle efficiency, performance, cost, and battery life. The input data for most light-duty vehicles can be automatically imported. Those inputs can be modified to represent variations of the vehicle or powertrain. The vehicle and its components are then simulated through speed-versus-time drive cycles. At each time step, FASTSim accounts for drag, acceleration, ascent, rolling resistance, each powertrain component's efficiency and power limits, and regenerative braking. Conventional vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, all-electric vehicles, compressed natural gas vehicles, and fuel cell vehicles are included.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) validated conventional diesel and diesel-hybrid, medium-duty parcel delivery vehicle models to evaluate petroleum reductions and cost implications of hybrid and plug-in hybrid diesel variants. The hybrid and plug-in hybrid variants are run on a field data-derived design matrix to analyze the effect of drive cycle, distance, engine downsizing, battery replacements, and battery energy on fuel consumption and lifetime cost. For an array of diesel fuel costs, the battery cost per kilowatt-hour at which the hybridized configuration becomes cost-effective is calculated. The results build on a previous analysis that found the fuel savings from medium-duty, plug-in hybrids more than offset vehicle incremental price for future battery and fuel cost projections; however, they seldom did so under present day cost assumptions in the absence of purchase incentives.

The objective of the study was to assess the impact of a Saflex1 S Series solar control PVB (polyvinyl butyral) windshield on conventional vehicle fuel economy and electric vehicle (EV) range. The approach included outdoor vehicle thermal soak testing, RadTherm cooldown analysis, and vehicle simulations. Thermal soak tests were conducted at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Vehicle Testing and Integration Facility in Golden, Colorado. The test results quantified interior temperature reductions and were used to generate initial conditions for the RadTherm cooldown analysis. The RadTherm model determined the potential reduction in air-conditioning (A/C) capacity, which was used to calculate the A/C load for the vehicle simulations. The vehicle simulation tool identified the potential reduction in fuel consumption or improvement in EV range between a baseline and solar control PVB configurations for the city and highway drive cycles.