Since 2015, more than 40 different models of hybrid electric vehicles have been introduced in the European market. The extreme diversity of the proposed solutions suggests that these technologies are still immature and have a long way to run to compete with fossil fuels-based technologies. At the same time, some car manufacturers are already pushing towards other solutions, such as hydrogen-fueled fuel cell vehicles. As a matter of fact, though, sustainable mobility is not anymore related only to alternative powertrains or alternative fuels, but recently it has started dealing with the problem of traffic management in urban areas. The rapid urban population growth is stirring up concerns about traffic congestion, parking problems, and the well-known pollution issues. In this context, autonomous and connected capabilities are gaining an increasingly important role, as they will eventually enable increased energy efficiency, higher safety, and high integration with the urban infrastructure. In fact, with these capabilities vehicle usage can be optimized in terms of both traffic management, promoting the interaction with the “world” outside the vehicle, and powertrain management, e.g., velocity profile, power split, etc. This Special Issue, therefore, seeks to contribute to the sustainable mobility agenda through enhanced scientific and multi-disciplinary knowledge to investigate concerns and real possibilities in the achievement of a greener mobility and to support the debate between industry and academic researchers, providing an interesting overview on new needs and investigation topics required for future developments. We therefore invite papers on innovative technical developments, reviews, case studies, and analytical as well as assessment papers from different disciplines, which are relevant to sustainable mobility.
Keywords: Control-oriented powertrain and vehicle modeling; Multiple on-board power sources; Hybrid energy storage systems; Alternative powertrains; Connectivity and autonomous capabilities integrated into the energy management strategy; Urban mobility and electric L-class vehicles.