sustainability Article Are Personal Electric Vehicles Sustainable? A Hybrid E-Bike Case Study Mihai Machedon-Pisu * and Paul Nicolae Borza Department of Electronics and Computers, Transilvania University of Bras, ov, 500036 Bras, ov, Romania;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +40-726-392-909 Received: 22 November 2019; Accepted: 14 December 2019; Published: 18 December 2019 Abstract: As the title suggests, the sustainability of personal electric vehicles is in question. In terms of life span, range, comfort, and safety, electric vehicles, such as e-cars and e-buses, are much better than personal electric vehicles, such as e-bikes. However, electric vehicles present greater costs and increased energy consumption. Also, the impact on environment, health, and fitness is more negative than that of personal electric vehicles. Since transportation vehicles can benefit from hybrid electric storage solutions, we address the following question: Is it possible to reach a compromise between sustainability and technology constraints by implementing a low-cost hybrid personal electric vehicle with improved life span and range that is also green? Our methodology consists of life cycle assessment and performance analyses tackling the facets of the sustainability challenges (economy, society, and environment) and limitations of the electric storage solutions (dependent on technology and application) presented herein. The hybrid electric storage system of the proposed hybrid e-bike is made of batteries, supercapacitors,