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As congestion increases and commute times lengthen with the growing urbanization, many customers will look for effective mobility solutions. Two-wheeler are one of the solutions to deal with these issues, in particular if equipped with electrified powertrains for minimized local noise and air pollutant emissions. Scooters powertrain technology is predominantly based on Spark Ignition Engine (ICE) associated with a Continuously Variable Transmissions (CVT) and a Centrifugal Clutch. Nevertheless, even though CVT gives satisfaction in simplicity, fun to drive, cost effectiveness and vehicle dynamics, its efficiency is an undeniable drawback. Indeed, a conventional CVT is wasting more than 50% of ICE effective power in customer driving conditions. Consequently, those vehicles have high fuel consumption relative to their size, and are equipped with overpowered and heavy internal combustion engines, allowing a large area for further improvements.

As passenger cars are progressively moving towards more electrification, Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) may play a greater role. Several questions arise regarding their performance in real-world conditions, their optimal configuration - in terms of battery capacity, fuel and powertrain used - and their pollutant emissions. In this context, two PHEVs complying with Euro 6d standards were evaluated on a chassis-dyno and on-road using the same road profile, complying with RDE requirements. The two vehicles differ only by their powertrain, one being diesel-fueled, and the other being gasoline-fueled. The vehicles were tested under various conditions, including charge depleting and charge sustaining modes (i.e., tests respectively starting with a fully charged battery and a discharged battery), with various fuel compositions including traditional fossil-based fuels, 100% renewable Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) and 100% renewable gasoline, blended with 20% v/v ethanol (E20).