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R&D Insights for Extreme Fast Charging of Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicles: Insights from the NREL Commercial Vehicles and Extreme Fast Charging Research Needs Workshop, August 27-28, 2019
3/1/2020
As battery costs have declined and battery performance has improved, the applicability of vehicle electrification has expanded beyond passenger cars to the commercial vehicle sector. However, due to the larger batteries that would be needed for the medium- and heavy-duty (MDHD) sector, the electric charging capabilities to serve these larger commercial vehicles will need to be substantially more powerful than light-duty chargers. More specifically, such 'extreme fast charging' (XFC) will likely need to reach the megawatt scale to provide a full charge in less than 30 minutes in some applications. In addition, the combined cost of electrified vehicles and charging must be competitive with the costs of petroleum-based technologies and other alternatives to encourage widespread adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) among MDHD fleets. Most of these fleets have a commercial mission and demand low total cost of ownership (TCO) (which motivates minimal refueling times) and high performance from their vehicles.
Authors: Walkowicz, K.; Meintz, A.; Farrell, J.
Insights on Electric Trucks for Retailers and Trucking Companies
2/28/2020
The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) has partnered with the Retail Industry Leaders Association, Atlas Public Policy, and David Gardiner and Associates to explore the landscape and outlook for electric trucks for freight movement. This joint initiative assesses the market landscape, challenges, and opportunities for electric truck adoption among retailer shippers and their transportation partners.
Authors: Leung, J.; Peace, J.
Assessing Financial Barriers to the Adoption of Electric Trucks
2/20/2020
Medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles (EVs) are a relatively new technology and many freight industry stakeholders lack access to independent analysis to help make informed decisions about electric trucks and charging infrastructure options. This paper assesses the market landscape, challenges, and opportunities for electric truck adoption among major shippers and their transportation partners by performing a total cost of ownership analysis for EVs under a wide range of procurement scenarios and comparing these results with those from an equivalent diesel vehicle procurement.
Authors: Satterfield, C.; Nigro, N.
A Decision Support Tool for Planning Neighborhood-Scale Deployment of Low-Speed Shared Automated Shuttles
2/18/2020
Increasing interest and investment in connected, automated, and electric vehicles, and mobility-as-a-service concepts are paving the way for the next major shift in transportation through automated and shared mobility. The initial excitement towards rapid deployment and adoption of automated vehicles has subsided, and low-speed automated shuttles are emerging as a more pragmatic pathway for introducing automated mobility in geo-fenced districts. Such shuttles hold the promise to provide a viable alternative for serving short trips in urban districts with high travel densities. As interest in low-speed automated shuttle systems (to improve urban mobility) increases, the need for tools that can inform communities regarding benefits or dis-benefits of automated shuttle deployments is imminent. However, most of the existing transportation planning and simulation tools are not capable of handling emerging shared automated mobility options. This presentation presents a microscopic simulation toolkit that can be used by cities and communities to plan for the deployment of low-speed automated shuttles systems, as well as other shared mobility options. Labeled as the Automated Mobility District (AMD) modeling and simulation toolkit, the proposed decision support tool can help cities evaluate the mobility and sustainability impacts of deploying shared automated vehicles in geofenced regions. This paper presents a description of the toolkit, as well as a sample scenario analysis for the deployment of low-speed automated shuttles in Greenville, South Carolina. Results from the scenario study demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed simulation toolkit in planning for advanced mobility systems.
Authors: Zhu, L.; Wang, J.; Garikapati, V.; Young, S.
Notes: Presented at the 2020 Transportation Research Board (TRB) 99th Annual Meeting, 12-16 January 2020, Washington, D.C.
Public charging infrastructure for plug-in electric vehicles: What is it worth?
2/7/2020
Lack of charging infrastructure is a significant barrier to the growth of the plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) market. Quantifying the value of public charging infrastructure can inform analysis of investment decisions and can help predict the impact of charging infrastructure on future PEV sales. This report focuses on quantifying the value of public chargers in terms of their ability to displace gasoline use for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and to enable additional electric vehicle miles for all-electric vehicles, thereby mitigating the limitations of shorter range and longer charging time.
Authors: Greene, D.L.; Kontou, E.; Borlaug, B.; Brooker, A.; Muratori, M.
Notes:
This Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment article (Vol. 78, January 2020, 102182) is copyrighted by Elsevier Ltd. and can be accessed through Science Direct.
Clean Cities Coalitions 2018 Activity Report
12/27/2019
Clean Cities coalition activities resulted in an energy use impact (EUI) of over 1 billion gasoline-gallons equivalent (GGE), comprised of net alternative fuels used and energy savings from efficiency projects, in 2018. Participation in vehicle and infrastructure development projects remained strong, as did alternative fuel use and resulting overall EUI. Clean Cities coalition activities reduce emissions as they impact energy use. Coalition-reported activities prevented 5 million carbon dioxide-equivalent tons of emissions (only greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions are reported here; criteria pollutants and other emissions are not included in this report). Coalitions were successful in securing project grant awards from numerous (non-DOE) outside sources. For other Federal, State, and local agencies and private sector foundations, see funding section on page 25. The 84 project grant awards in 2018 generated $251 million in funds from coalition members and project partners along with $1.9 million in DOE grant funds. Coalitions also collected $1.1 million in stakeholder dues and $2.9 million in operational funds from host organizations. In macro terms, this supplemental funding represents nearly a 7:1 leveraging of the $37.8 million that was included in the VTO Technology Integration budget in Fiscal Year 2018. Clean Cities coordinators spent nearly 121,000 hours pursuing their coalitions' goals in 2018. The average coordinator is quite experienced and has held his or her position for at least eight years. Coordinators logged more than 3,805 outreach, education, and training activities in 2018, which reached an estimated 35 million people.
Authors: Singer, M.; Johnson, C.
Best Practices for Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment Installations in the National Parks - Challenges, Lessons Learned, Installation Best Practices, and Recommendations for the National Park Service
12/27/2019
This report captures challenges, lessons learned, and best practices from recent National Park Service (NPS) electric vehicle supply equipment projects based on interviews with NPS employees and stakeholders involved in the projects. The report summarizes notable takeaways and makes recommendations to help ensure the success of future charging installation projects. Preserving this information will be valuable for informing and ensuring the success of future charging installation efforts at national parks, as well as for organizations outside of NPS. Note that this report focuses on light-duty plug-in electric vehicle projects, though NPS is also pursuing medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicle efforts.
Authors: Kelly, K.; Noblet., S.; Brown, A.
Preparing to Plug-In Your Bus Fleet: 10 Things to Consider
12/5/2019
The purpose of this guide is to identify some of the key areas where electric companies and their customers can work together to streamline the fleet electrification process. This guide is applicable to any company that operates a fleet, but it is particularly focused on medium- and heavy-duty vehicle fleets that likely will have higher power charging needs. Included in this guide is are 10 key considerations that fleets should know about electric companies and fleet electrification.
Notes:
This report is copyrighted and can be accessed on the American Public Transportation Association’s website.
Alternative Fuels Data Center
12/4/2019
The Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC) provides a wealth of information and data on alternative and renewable fuels, advanced vehicles, fuel-saving strategies, and emerging transportation technologies. The site features a number of interactive tools, calculators, and mapping applications to aid in the implementation of these fuels, vehicles, and strategies. The AFDC functions as a dynamic online hub, enabling thousands of stakeholders in the transportation system to interact with one another.
Reducing EV Charging Infrastructure Costs
12/3/2019
This report finds that while the cost of hardware components is already falling as manufacturers gradually find ways to lower costs, there are significant “soft costs” that need to be reduced. The costs of permitting delays, utility interconnection requests, compliance with regulations, and the reengineering of projects because they were based on incorrect information, among others, are frequently cited as more significant cost drivers than charging station hardware in the United States.
Authors: Nelder, C.; Rogers, E.
Notes:
This copyrighted publication can be downloaded from Rocky Mountain Institute's website.
Viable Class 7 and 8 Electric, Hybrid, and Alternative Fuel Tractors
12/1/2019
Trucking is at the start of significant changes in powertrains. The purpose of this report is to help clarify in an unbiased way the differences and similarities in a wide spectrum of developing powertrain choices facing fleets. This report focuses on the primary near-term drivetrain choices for the Class 7 and 8 North American heavy-duty tractor market.
Notes:
This copyrighted publication can be accessed through North American Council for Freight Efficiency's website.
Electric Vehicle Capitals: Showing the Path to a Mainstream Market
11/20/2019
This briefing assesses metropolitan area-level data on plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) registrations and identifies the 25 largest PEV markets, which together represent 42% of new passenger PEV sales globally through 2018. To provide a blueprint for other governments, this briefing analyzes the incentives, charging infrastructure, and city promotion actions in these areas that are spurring PEVs into the mainstream.
Authors: Hall, D.; Cui, H.; Lutsey, N.
Notes:
This copyrighted publication can be accessed on The International Council on Clean Transportation's website.
Transportation Electrification Study
11/1/2019
Many cities around the country have undertaken actions and policies to support transportation electrification to improve air quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, support residents that choose to drive electric vehicles (EVs), enhance equitable access to clean mobility, and promote economic development. This study recommends efforts the City of Raleigh can undertake to advance transportation electrification both in its own operations and in the community more broadly. The report describes recommended strategies and actions the City of Raleigh can undertake to advance transportation electrification in the areas of City of Raleigh municipal fleet, charging infrastructure, equity and access, equitable economic development and public engagement, and implementation roles and responsibilities.
