Electric Vehicles in an Urban Context: Environmental Benefits and Techno-Economic Barriers

Mobility of persons and goods is a crucial component of the competitiveness of the economy; mobility is also an essential citizen right. Effective transportation systems are important for social prosperity, having significant impacts on economic growth, social development and the environment. The goal of any sustainable transport policy is to ensure that our transport systems meet society's economic, social and environmental needs. In 2006 the transport sector consumed 31% of the total final energy consumption (of which 82% is due to road transport) and was responsible for 25% of CO2 emissions (EU-27). In 2007 road transport constituted about 83% of passenger total transport demand. Road transport accounts for 71% of transport related CO2 emissions and passenger cars constitute 63% of these road transport related CO2 emissions. Currently, road transport is also totally dependent ("90%) of fuel oil making it very sensitive to foreseeable shortage of crude oil, besides largely contributing to air pollutants such as NOx, PM10 and volatile organic compounds. It is estimated that more than 80% of the developed world population lives in an urban environment and therefore it is in this environment where a larger concentration of vehicles are found. As example there were about 230 million passenger vehicles in the EU-27 in 2007 and the new vehicle sales were nearly 16 million vehicles in that year. Consequently the urban population is very much at risk by directly suffering the impact of conventional vehicles because their closeness to the pollutant source. Air pollution is one of the important external costs of transport as it impacts on the health of the population (it is estimated to be 0.75% of the EU GDP). On the other hand, the large concentration of vehicles causes traffic congestions in metropolitan urban areas that can be considered a threat to economi

Potential Impact of Electric Vehicles on the Electric Supply System. A Case Study for the Province of Milan, Italy

The study analyses the impact of the electric vehicles¿ recharging activities on the electric supply system for the Province of Milan with a 2030 time horizon. In particular, the impact is seen both in terms of total electric energy consumption and in power requested to the grid. Because of the long recharging time required by the cars batteries, the probability to have thousands of cars contemporary plugged-in is not negligible. The key issue of the study is a more plausible (in the authors¿ opinion) estimation of the potential electric vehicles market share evolution in the time period considered. The results obtained clearly show that without an appropriate regulation (e.g. the intelligent integration of electric vehicles into the existing power grid as decentralized and flexible energy storage), electric vehicles could heavily impact on the daily requested electric power.JRC.H.4-Transport and air qualit

PEMS EMISSIONS TESTING OF HEAVY DUTY VEHICLES/ENGINES: ASSESSMENT OF PEMS PROCEDURES IN FULFILMENT OF ARTICLE 14(3) TO REGULATION (EU) 582/2011

The Euro VI Regulation (EC) No 595/2009 and the implementing Regulation [2] (EC) 582/2011 introduces a procedure for PEMS testing as a mandatory part of the type approval legislation in order to check the conformity of heavy-duty engines with the applicable emissions certification standards during the normal life of those engines: this is the so-called “In Service Conformity” (ISC) requirements. In addition, Euro VI engines also have to verify their actual in-use emissions already at type approval (PEMS demonstration test). Even if the PEMS procedure has already been introduced into legislation there is still a need for further evaluation and development. Article 14(3) of the implementing regulation for Euro VI (EC) No 582/2011 states the following: “Any additional requirements with respect to off-cycle in-use vehicle testing referred to in point (d) of paragraph 1 shall be introduced after the assessment of the PEMS procedures set out in Annex II. The assessment shall be finalised by 31 December 2014.” An assessment of the currently introduced PEMS procedure should therefore be carried out, and based on the outcome of this assessment; proposals for amending the PEMS procedure should be made. The European Commission through DG ENTR in co-operation with DG JRC launched in January 2012 a programme to address the legislative mandate to assess the present PEMS procedure. This report describes the activities during the programme, its findings and recommendations for amending the PEMS procedure.JRC.F.8-Sustainable Transpor

Present and Future Role of Battery Electrical Vehicles in Private and Public Urban Transport

The OECD estimates that more than 70% of the developed world population lives in urban environments2, which explains a larger concentration of vehicles there. In the EU-27, there were about 230 million passenger vehicles in 2007 and the new vehicle sales were nearly 16 million vehicles in that year. Notwithstanding the improvements in regulated air pollutants from road transport, the urban population remains at higher risk levels by directly suffering the impact of conventional vehicles because of their closeness to the pollutant source. On one hand urbanization means that people when travelling in their urban environment will typically travel less than 100 km a day. And on the other, that a large percentage of all transâ port and delivery of goods will take place in urban areas. Acceleration and deceleration freâ quency, traffic jams, thus energy efficiency and pollution per km are worst within urban traffic. Many business cases exist for urban electrified road transport because these offer a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) than conventional means already today. The abov

Technical, Operational and Logistical Parameters Influencing Emissions of Heavy Duty Vehicles

The focus of this study is the analysis of collected data of real world emission measurements of a heavy duty vehicle using a Portable Emission Measurement System (PEMS) along a large portion of the extended Trans-European Transport CORRIDOR V. The aim of the analysis is to assess heavy duty vehicle emission in different real-world transport conditions and their correlations i.e. transport factors influencing emissions.JRC.H.4-Transport and air qualit

Evaluation of a Euro 4 vehicle with various blends of CNG/H2 fuel

The report presents the main results of an experimental campaign carried out by the JRC in the support of the legislative activities on type approval of hydrogen-powered motor vehicles. It serves as the scientific and technical basis to test the proposed methods for type approval regarding vehicles using a variable mixture of H2 and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). A prototype bi-fuel vehicle is tested, designed to operate either on petrol or on various H2-CNG blends, with maximum percentage of 30% H2 on CNG. The methodology used to estimate the unburned hydrocarbon’s density, the fuel density, the fuel consumption, and the heating value of each H2-CNG blend in presented. The bag and modal gaseous emissions, as well as the particulate emission performances of the vehicle tested under the various H2-CNG blends and on petrol fuel is presented. It can be concluded that the use of such fuel mixtures can provide a positive input to the reduction of pollutant emissions as well as of greenhouse gas emissions.JRC.F.8-Sustainable Transpor

Indicators to Assess Sustainability of Transport Activities - Part 1: Review of the Existing Transport Sustainability Indicator Initiatives and Development of an Indicator Set to Assess Transport Sustainability Performance

The major focus of this study is the review of the existing transport indicator initiatives of the EU and other international organisations as well as the development of an indicator set to measure sustainability of transport systems. Initially, the major characteristics of environmentally sustainable transport are defined and indicator quality selection criteria and quantitative targets as guideline criteria for selection of transport related indicators are presented. The following parts are dedicated to a review of a number of major EU and international indicator initiatives. On the basis of 10 transport related international initiatives which include EC Sustainable Development Indicators, EC ETIS study, the EEA TERM indicators, Eurostat transport indicators, transport indicator sets from OECD, US EPA, World Bank, UNECE, VTPI as well as taking into account the EC JRC Well-to-Wheel study a set of 55 sustainable transport indicators has been identified. In addition, causal chains among the selected indicators are analysed according to the DPSIR framework. This selection of transport sustainability indicators may serve as a valuable framework for the assessment of European transport sustainability performance and for the development of policy scenarios and strategies to mitigate negative impacts from transport activities. Their use in the so-called "Dashboard of Sustainability" (JRC) will point out areas where transport performance shows particular success or problems in the EU27.JRC.H.4-Transport and air qualit

Cost Effectiveness Analysis of the Emission Abatement in the Shipping Sector

Maritime transport is generally considered environmental friendly compared with other transportation means. Nevertheless, shipping emissions give an important contribution to the global anthropogenic pollution and are a significant source of damage to environment and human health. Contrary to land bases sources, few regulations exist and shipping emissions are expected to grow as a consequence of increasing transport volume. For this reason, both technological improvement and international legislation are urgently needed. This report summarizes the NOx SOx and CO2 abated technologies and provide an overview of the costs and benefits related to potential emissions reductions. Investigating the cost effectiveness of specific emission measure, this report provides important information for transport sustainability. However, to break the connection between maritime transport and environmental damage, stricter emission regulation and powerful economic instruments are also needed.JRC.H.4-Transport and air qualit

PEMS BASED IN-SERVICE TESTING: PRACTICAL RECOMMENDATIONS FOR HEAVY-DUTY ENGINES/VEHICLES

This guidance document is a JRC technical support document, contributing to the development of best practices with PEMS. It shall be used primarily for the preparation, the execution and the follow-up of the emissions tests with PEMS on road heavy-duty vehicles (HDV) equipped with conventional combustion engines (gasoline, diesel, CNG, LPG). The document does not substitute either the operation manuals of the instruments or safety rules and recommendations nor official regulatory texts regarding in-use emissions tests with PEMS. The intention of this guide is to clarify some operational points of the PEMS procedure and to provide a guide for the application of PEMS inside and outside the regulatory context (In-Service Conformity Testing of heavy-duty engines as foreseen in Regulations 582/2011 and 64/2012).JRC.F.8-Sustainable Transpor

Indicators to Assess Sustainability of Transport Activities - Part 2: Measurement and Evaluation of Transport Sustainability Performance in the EU27

Inspired by the growing interest of academic and policy environments in the field of transport sustainability, this work focuses on the measurement and assessment of transport activities in the European Union (EU) with the use of transport sustainability indicators. On the basis of major international transport related indicator initiatives a set of 55 transport sustainability indicators has been developed (as defined in the first part of the report by Dobranskyte-Niskota et al., 2007) where due to lack of data 32 indicators have been assessed in quantitative terms and the JRC SusTrans Index has been developed. The Joint Research Centre software tool entitled ¿the Dashboard of Sustainability¿ based on a simple graphic interface has been applied to the JRC SusTrans Index in the assessment of transport sustainability performance in the EU Member States. The Dashboard tool has compared indicator groups using the EWA method and communicated a quick impression by pointing to areas where transport indicators showed particular success or problems. Additionally, the Dashboard tool has been also applied to the Transport and Environment Reporting Mechanism (TERM) indicator set developed by the European Environmental Agency and the TERM Index has been calculated. The TERM Index has been used as a reference point to benchmark transport sustainability performance results of the EU Member States obtained by the SusTrans Index. The outcomes of the two indices (the SusTrans and the TERM) have revealed the highest rank of transport sustainability performance in Germany and Netherlands while the lowest performance ranks - in Greece and Bulgaria. The results of the two indices have revealed many similarities, while some differences in the outcomes observed are due to the variations in the structures of the indices. This in-depth analysis of EU 27 transport activities by the selected sustainability indicators using adequate modelling tools serves as valuable guidelines for forming transport policy strategies and scenarios. These policies aim to reduce negative impacts of transport activities with the final goal of achieving a sustainable transportation system in the European Union.JRC.H.4-Transport and air qualit