| Summary: | Arctic Trucks have been modifying vehicles such as the Toyota Hilux, Toyota Land Cruiser, Isuzu D-Max, Nissan Patrol and Nissan Navara for over 25 years for special projects as well as for recreational purposes both in Iceland and other countries. Arctic Trucks started up as a sub-division for Toyota Iceland but became an independent company in 2005. Their capability to make off-road vehicles is well known, the Toyota Hilux AT38 being their flagship. It has been driven to both the magnetic north pole, the South Pole and various other remote places and is widely used for logistics in Icelandic highlands as well as other places both during summer and winter time. This M.Sc. project in vehicle engineering covers measurements of energy consumption of a modified Toyota Hilux AT38 2017 in order to determine if some improvements are possible when it comes to fuel consumption and the vehicles environmental impact by hybridisation or full electrification of the vehicle. Fuel consumption is measured in various on-road and off-road conditions (gravel, snow and asphalt). Calculations are made to estimate the effect on fuel consumption of the climate control in the vehicle cabin. Air drag coefficient and friction coefficient are estimated based on coast-down tests in real-life conditions. These factors are necessary to evaluate the total running resistance of the vehicle. These fuel consumption measurements show that the fuel consumption for off-road driving is quite high and since this type of vehicle also needs to be light, the advantages of hybridisation or full electrification need to be examined further. For highway and city driving, hybridisation might be feasible but many factors need to be looked at for that case as well. As of now, battery technology and lack of infrastructure are standing in the way of this type of electric or plugin hybrid vehicles, since these vehicles are used in environments where electricity or even fossil fuel is hard and expensive to reach.
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