energies Review Electrification of Compact Off-Highway Vehicles—Overview of the Current State of the Art and Trends Daniele Beltrami 1 , Paolo Iora 1, Laura Tribioli 2 and Stefano Uberti 1,* 1 Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Università di Brescia, 25123 Brescia, Italy;
[email protected] (D.B.);
[email protected] (P.I.) 2 Department of Industrial Engineering, Università di Roma Niccolò Cusano, 00166 Roma, Italy;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +39-030-3715517 Abstract: Electrified vehicles have undergone great evolution during the last decade because of the increasing attention paid on environmental sustainability, greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. Emission regulations are becoming increasingly tight, and governments have been allocating multiple funds to facilitate the spreading of the so-called green mobility. In this context, steering towards electrified solutions not only for passenger vehicles, but also for compact off-highway vehicles extensively employed, for instance, on construction sites located in urban areas, warehouses, and greenhouses, is essential even if seldom considered. Moreover, the electrification of compact off- highway machinery may allow manufacturers to increase their expertise in and lower the costs of these alternative solutions, while gathering useful data to be applied in bigger and more remunerative off-highway vehicles. In fact, while electric automobiles are as of now real alternatives for buyers, off-highway vehicles, regardless of the application, are mostly in the research and experimental phase, with few of them already on the market. This delay, in comparison with the passenger automotive Citation: Beltrami, D.; Iora, P.; Tribioli, L.; Uberti, S.