Eras of electric vehicles: electric mobility on the Verge. Focus Attention Scale

Daily or casual passenger vehicles in cities have negative burden on our finite world. Transport sector has been one of the main contributors to air pollution and energy depletion. Providing alternative means of transport is a promising strategy perceived by motor manufacturers and researchers. The paper presents the battery electric vehicles-BEVs bibliography that starts with the early eras of invention up till 2015 outlook. It gives a broad overview of BEV market and its technology in a chronological classification while sheds light on the stakeholders’ focus attentions in each stage, the so called, Focus-Attention-Scale-FAS. The attention given in each era is projected and parsed in a scale graph, which varies between micro, meso, and macro-scale. BEV-system is on the verge of experiencing massive growth; however, the system entails a variety of substantial challenges. Observations show the main issues of BEVsystem that require more attention followed by the authors’ recommendations towards an emerging market

Future “greener” urban transport: accessible, mobile and resilient cities?

Geographers, amongst others, have been considering urban futures for some time now. They all try to conceptually understand what a “sustainable city” in Europe / the UK / globally might look like. oncepts such as liveable, “green”, sustainable and resilient are being discussed, with carbon emissions and transitions, including from transport. Mobility (or what some authors call motility) is one strand, with lifecycle assessment of vehicles and fuels being applied . This article reviews visions and policies for more resilient urban transport

The Critical Role of Public Charging Infrastructure

Editors: Peter Fox-Penner, PhD, Z. Justin Ren, PhD, David O. JermainA decade after the launch of the contemporary global electric vehicle (EV) market, most cities face a major challenge preparing for rising EV demand. Some cities, and the leaders who shape them, are meeting and even leading demand for EV infrastructure. This book aggregates deep, groundbreaking research in the areas of urban EV deployment for city managers, private developers, urban planners, and utilities who want to understand and lead change

Governing and innovation: the transition to E-mobility - A dutch perspective

This is an essay approach to develop a discussion about the role government can play in stimulating electric vehicle (EV) diffusion, adoption and deployment in support of larger societal goals such as sustainability and urban livability. This reviews governance strategy in support of electric vehicle innovation in a way that integrate many societal actors, including the market to move forward a project with many spillover benefits. It does this by reference to examples and projects in the Netherlands, the EU and the U.S. that articulate these strategies. This is a Dutch perspective because it is written in that context but it has examples and viewpoints that should have a wider appeal

Different charging strategies for electric vehicle fleets in urban freight transport.

The transition from diesel-driven urban freight transport towards more electric urban freight transport turns out to be challenging in practice. A major concern for transport operators is how to find a reliable charging strategy for a larger electric vehicle fleet that provides flexibility based on different daily mission profiles within that fleet, while also minimizing costs. This contribution assesses the trade-off between a large battery pack and opportunity charging with regard to costs and operational constraints. Based on a case study with 39 electric freight vehicles that have been used by a parcel delivery company and a courier company in daily operations for over a year, various scenarios have been analyzed by means of a TCO analysis. Although a large battery allows for more flexibility in planning, opportunity charging can provide a feasible alternative, especially in the case of varying mission profiles. Additional personnel costs during opportunity charging can be avoided as much as possible by a well-integrated charging strategy, which can be realized by a reservation system that minimizes the risk of occupied charging stations and a dense network of charging stations

Towards a Multimodal Charging Network: Joint Planning of Charging Stations and Battery Swapping Stations for Electrified Ride-Hailing Fleets

This paper considers a multimodal charging network in which charging stations and battery swapping stations are built in tandem to support the electrified ride-hailing fleet in a synergistic manner. Our central thesis is predicated on the observation that charging stations are cost-effective, making them ideal for scaling up electric vehicles in ride-hailing fleets in the beginning, while battery swapping stations offer quick turnaround and can be deployed in tandem with charging stations to improve fleet utilization and reduce operational costs for the ride-hailing platform. To fulfill this vision, we consider a ride-hailing platform that expands the multimodal charging network with a multi-stage investment budget and operates a ride-hailing fleet to maximize its profit. A multi-stage network expansion model is proposed to characterize the coupled planning and operational decisions, which captures demand elasticity, passenger waiting time, charging and swapping waiting times, as well as their dependence on fleet status and charging infrastructure. The overall problem is formulated as a nonconvex program. Instead of pursuing the globally optimal solution, we establish a theoretical upper bound through relaxation, reformulation, and decomposition so that the global optimality of the derived solution to the nonconvex problem is verifiable. In the case study for Manhattan, we find that the two facilities complement each other and play different roles during the expansion of charging infrastructure: at the early stage, the platform always prioritizes building charging stations to electrify the fleet, after which it initiates the deployment of swapping stations to enhance fleet utilization. Compared to the charging-only case, ..

Sustainable Perspective of Electric Vehicles and Its Future Prospects

Vehicles running on fossil fuel are creating a threat to the environment by emitting pollutants such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and sulfur and nitrogen oxides into the environment. Electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles provide a perennial solution to this problem and since the utilization of renewables for charging, the market is on verge of electric vehicle revolution. Electric propulsion systems can also be used in heavy transport vehicles, thus transitioning them to electric. This paper puts forth an overview of the electric vehicles for transportation of masses and freight across the globe and emphasis on the battery charging infrastructures. Recent trends and advancements in electric vehicle batteries are discussed briefly, along with sustainability in Li-ion batteries and its materials; moreover, a comparative study of different electric vehicles available in the Indian market is done. Similarly, the incentives offered by government, challenges faced by these vehicles and future development areas are conversed at the end of the paper

Divergent Paths: An Analysis of the Autonomous Future in McLean County

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are expected to arrive on public roads in the mid-term future, but will vary in their uses and level of self-driving capabilities. On the heels of the rise of shared mobility services from transportation network companies like Uber and Lyft, the combination of these technologies has generated the anticipation of a diminishing need for private car ownership. The promises of when AVs will arrive has been somewhat tempered in recent years, allowing the public and stakeholders valuable time to more adequately plan for their arrival. A yet undetermined outcome is the influence these new technologies will have on traveler behavior, which impacts nearly every aspect of transportation planning. This report highlights two divergent paths that the autonomous future is likely to usher in: One scenario is marked by a new mobility ecosystem which enables people and things to move faster, cleaner, cheaper, and safer than today. The other possibility is that the autonomous future is marked by a decrease in overall safety, increased congestion, abandonment of public transport systems, lack of privacy, and transportation deserts. Which of these futures comes to fruition is dependent on various competing forces from public entities and the private sector. This discussion aims to provide a ten-thousand-foot view of the myriad of changes that self-driving vehicles are likely to generate. This report was written for multiple purposes, both for the formal needs of the McLean County Regional Planning Commission (MCRPC), as well as a brief introduction for Bloomington-Normal-McLean County stakeholders to start planning for the autonomous future. The author hopes it will be utilized as a resource for ongoing intergovernmental discussion of smart cities, intelligent transportation systems, and public technology currently being conducted by MCRPC and local governments. In addition, it will serve as a supplement to the 2045 Long Range Metropolitan Transportation Plan for the Bloomington-Normal urbanized area

Transforming Transportation

Moscow has fallen behind the world’s push for alternative fuel development, due to a nearly ubiquitous use of gasoline vehicles. Our project seeks to determine the most economically feasible alternative fuel for Moscow’s present and future vehicle economy. To accomplish this goal we conducted a life-cycle cost analysis on three vehicles selected to represent the Moscow consumer’s buying preferences. We concluded that, at present, electric vehicles are non-viable in Moscow, while natural gas powered vehicles are practical, economical, sustainable, and take advantage of both the existing infrastructure and Russia’s enormous natural gas reserves

Simulating Electric Vehicle Short-Notice Wildfire Evacuation in California Rural Communities

The transportation sector in California has begun a shift toward adopting Electric Vehicles (EVs) as a primary source of individual and corporate mobility. The US Government and the State of California are initiating public-sector financed charging station infrastructure to help in this change-over to EVs. Automobile companies and private enterprises are also heavily investing in Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) infrastructure going forward. The state of California is subject to natural disasters such as Fire, Earthquakes, and periodic flooding. Increasing numbers of BEVs may add new challenges to mass evacuations that are often associated with natural disasters. This work focuses on unique challenges in providing BEV charging infrastructure during evacuations in regions that: are small towns with a considerable rural population, are prone to natural disasters, have a single evacuation route, have underdeveloped EV charging infrastructure, are considerable distance to a major center of EV charging infrastructure and safety from the mass evacuation scenario, have a secondary small charging location also available on the single evacuation route that leads to the major city of safety. To analyze the unique challenges of these particular mass-evacuation scenarios, a simulation was created to estimate the evacuation times of the BEV population given a set charging infrastructure. The model also includes BEV charging infrastructure, and for a single secondary charging station that is along the evacuation route. The objective of the simulation model is to determine the charging needs for a rural evacuation scenario and the ideal distance to an alternate secondary charging station along a single evacuation route in order to minimize total evacuation time. In order to provide a more realistic set of scenarios for the model, two different rural evacuation scenarios were analyzed. Kernville, California, in Kern County that is 52 miles from Bakersfield Auberry, California, in Fresno County that is 36 miles from Fresno The BEV charging infrastructure model inputs are customized for assumed BEV charging infrastructure in the year 2025 based on historical BEV registration numbers according to the Department of Motor Vehicles. The simulation results show that the projected charging infrastructure in the year 2025 would suffice for an evacuation scenario in which 90% of the BEV arrive at the evacuation destination within 10 hours of the evacuation order. However, due to the severity of potential danger in short-notice wildfire evacuations, it would be ideal to further decrease the total evacuation time. The simulation model found that increasing the charging infrastructure by one level 3 charge plug had a much larger impact on minimizing evacuation time than increasing it by two level 2 charge plugs. Therefore, it would be beneficial for the rural towns to invest in level 3 chargers to shorten evacuation times