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Impacts of Electrification of Light-Duty Vehicles in the United States, 2010-2017
1/25/2018
Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) are among the fastest growing drivetrains in the United States and worldwide. Understanding the aggregate impact of PEVs is important when exploring electricity use and petroleum consumption. This report examines the sales of PEVs in the United States from 2010 to 2017, exploring vehicle sales, electricity consumption, petroleum reduction, and battery production.
Authors: Gohlke, D.; Zhou, Y.
Navigation API Route Fuel Saving Opportunity Assessment on Large-Scale Real-World Travel Data for Conventional Vehicles and Hybrid Electric Vehicles: Preprint
12/22/2017
The green routing strategy instructing a vehicle to select a fuel-efficient route benefits the current transportation system with fuel-saving opportunities. This paper introduces a navigation API route fuel-saving evaluation framework for estimating fuel advantages of alternative API routes based on large-scale, real-world travel data for conventional vehicles (CVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). The navigation APIs, such Google Directions API, integrate traffic conditions and provide feasible alternative routes for origin-destination pairs. This paper develops two link-based fuel-consumption models stratified by link-level speed, road grade, and functional class (local/non-local), one for CVs and the other for HEVs. The link-based fuel-consumption models are built by assigning travel from a large number of GPS driving traces to the links in TomTom MultiNet as the underlying road network layer and road grade data from a U.S. Geological Survey elevation data set. Fuel consumption on a link is calculated by the proposed fuel consumption model. This paper envisions two kinds of applications: 1) identifying alternate routes that save fuel, and 2) quantifying the potential fuel savings for large amounts of travel. An experiment based on a large-scale California Household Travel Survey GPS trajectory data set is conducted. The fuel consumption and savings of CVs and HEVs are investigated. At the same time, the trade-off between fuel saving and time saving for choosing different routes is also examined for both powertrains.
Authors: Zhu, L.; Holden, J.; Gonder, J.
Electric Ground Support Equipment at Airports
12/12/2017
Airport ground support equipment (GSE) is used to service airplanes between flights. Services include refueling, towing airplanes or luggage/freight carts, loading luggage/freight, transporting passengers, loading potable water, removing sewage, loading food, de-icing airplanes, and fire-fighting. Deploying new GSE technologies is a promising opportunity in part because the purchasers are generally large, technologically sophisticated airlines, contractors, or airports with centralized procurement and maintenance departments. Airlines could particularly benefit from fuel diversification since they are highly exposed to petroleum price volatility. GSE can be particularly well-suited for electrification because it benefits from low-end torque and has frequent idle time and short required ranges.
Authors: Johnson, C.
Overcoming Barriers to Electric Vehicle Charging in Multi-unit Dwellings: A Westside Cities Case Study
12/1/2017
The purpose of this case study is to explore barriers to plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) adoption for residents of multi-unit dwellings (MUDs) within the Westside Cities subregion of Los Angeles County and then identify MUDs within the study region that may exhibit high PEV demand and demand for low-cost electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) installation. This report also reviews the costs associated with EVSE installation at MUD sites, which are highly variable across properties. The report closes with a discussion of policy tools for scaling up charging infrastructure at MUD sites across the Westside Cities subregion.
Fuel Cell Buses in U.S. Transit Fleets: Current Status 2017
11/21/2017
This report, published annually, summarizes the progress of fuel cell electric bus (FCEB) development in the United States and discusses the achievements and challenges of introducing fuel cell propulsion in transit. The report provides a summary of results from evaluations performed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. This annual status report combines results from all FCEB demonstrations, tracks the progress of the FCEB industry toward meeting technical targets, documents the lessons learned, and discusses the path forward for commercial viability of fuel cell technology for transit buses. These data and analyses help provide needed information to guide future early-stage research and development. The 2017 summary results primarily focus on the most recent year for each demonstration, from August 2016 through July 2017. The primary results presented in the report are from five demonstrations of two different fuel-cell-dominant bus designs: Zero Emission Bay Area Demonstration Group led by Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit) in California; American Fuel Cell Bus (AFCB) Project at SunLine Transit Agency in California; AFCB Project at the University of California at Irvine; AFCB Project at Orange County Transportation Authority; and AFCB Project at Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
Authors: Eudy, L.; Post, M.
Utility Investment in Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure: Key Regulatory Considerations
11/13/2017
The report provides an overview of the accelerating electrification of the transportation sector and explores the role of state utility regulators in evaluating potential investments by electric utilities in plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) charging infrastructure. The report identifies key considerations for regulators, including the amount of charging infrastructure needed to support PEVs, ways that regulators can help ensure equitable access to charging infrastructure, and opportunities to maximize the benefits of utility investment in charging infrastructure.
Authors: Allen, P.; Van Horn, G.; Goetz, M.; Bradbury, J.; Zyla, K.
The Barriers to Acceptance of Plug-in Electric Vehicles: 2017 Update
11/9/2017
Vehicle manufacturers, government agencies, universities, private researchers, and organizations worldwide are pursuing advanced vehicle technologies that aim to reduce the consumption of petroleum in the forms of gasoline and diesel. Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) are one such technology. This report, an update to the previous version published in December 2016, details findings from a study in February 2017 of broad American public sentiments toward issues that surround PEVs. This report is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Vehicle Technologies Office in alignment with its mission to develop and deploy these technologies to improve energy security, enhance mobility flexibility, reduce transportation costs, and increase environmental sustainability.
Authors: Singer, M.
What Fleets Need to Know About Alternative Fuel Vehicle Conversions, Retrofits, and Repowers
10/17/2017
Many fleet managers have opted to incorporate alternative fuels and advanced vehicles into their lineup. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) offer a variety of choices, and there are additional options offered by aftermarket companies. There are also a myriad of ways that existing vehicles can be modified to utilize alternative fuels and other advanced technologies. Vehicle conversions and retrofit packages, along with engine repower options, can offer an ideal way to lower vehicle operating costs. This can result in long term return on investment, in addition to helping fleet managers achieve emissions and environmental goals. This report summarizes the various factors to consider when pursuing a conversion, retrofit, or repower option.
Authors: Kelly, K.; Gonzales, J.
Enabling Fast Charging: A Technology Gap Assessment
10/1/2017
In this report, researchers at Idaho National Laboratory teamed with Argonne National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to identify technical gaps to implementing an extreme fast charging network in the United States. This report highlights technical gaps at the battery, vehicle, and infrastructure levels.
Authors: Howell, D.; Boyd, S.; Cunningham, B.; Gillard, S.; Slezak, L.; Ahmed, S.; Bloom, I.; Burnham, A.; Hardy, K.; Jansen, A.N.; Nelson, P.A.; Robertson, D.C.; Stephens, T.; Vijayagopal, R.; Carlson, R.B.; Dias, F.; Dufek, E.J.; Michelbacher, C.J.; Mohanpurkar, M.; Scoffield, D.; Shirk, M.; Tanim, T.; Keyser, M.; Kreuzer, C.; Li, O.; Markel, A.; Meintz, A.; Pesaran, A.; Santhanagopalan, S.; Smith, K.; Wood, E.; Zhang, J.
Lithium-ion Battery Safety Issues for Electric and Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles
10/1/2017
This technical report assesses lithium-ion battery vehicle safety issues and provides National Highway Traffic Safety Administration information that can support needs assessments and prioritize future research pertaining to lithium-ion battery vehicles. In addressing safety concerns about lithium-ion battery vehicles, this report provides a compendium of relevant and available technical background information. Included in this report is information on lithium-ion cell electrochemistry, design, and safety performance; lithium-ion battery system architecture; battery system analyses for various types of electric vehicles; battery management and control systems; optimal battery conditions; safety standards, including relevant gap analysis; hazards and risk mitigation strategies; and a summary of observations and considerations.
Authors: Denny Stephens, Paul Shawcross, Gabe Stout, Edward Sullivan, James Saunders
Characterization of PTO and Idle Behavior for Utility Vehicles
9/28/2017
This report presents the results of analyses performed on utility vehicle data composed primarily of aerial lift bucket trucks sampled from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Fleet DNA database to characterize power takeoff (PTO) and idle operating behavior for utility trucks. Two major data sources were examined in this study: a 75-vehicle sample of Odyne electric PTO (ePTO)-equipped vehicles drawn from multiple fleets spread across the United States and 10 conventional PTO-equipped Pacific Gas and Electric fleet vehicles operating in California. Novel data mining approaches were developed to identify PTO and idle operating states for each of the datasets using telematics and controller area network/onboard diagnostics data channels. These methods were applied to the individual datasets and aggregated to develop utilization curves and distributions describing PTO and idle behavior in both absolute and relative operating terms. This report also includes background information on the source vehicles, development of the analysis methodology, and conclusions regarding the study's findings.
Authors: Konan, A.; Duran, A.; Kelly, K.; Miller, E.; Prohaska, R.
Designing a Successful Transportation Project: Lessons Learned from the Clean Cities American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Projects
9/27/2017
The largest source of funding for alternative fuel vehicle and infrastructure projects in the U.S. Department of Energy's Clean Cities program's history came from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act). In 2009, the 25 cost-share projects totaled nearly $300 million in federal government investment. This effort included the involvement of 50 Clean Cities coalitions and their nearly 700 stakeholder partners who provided an additional $500 million in matching funds to support projects in their local communities. In total, those 25 projects established 1,380 alternative fueling stations and put more than 9,000 alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles on the road. Together, these projects displaced 154 million gasoline gallon equivalents (GGE) of petroleum and averted 254,000 tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while supporting U.S. energy independence and contributing to regional economic development. During post-project interviews, project leaders consistently cited a number of key components - ranging from technical and logistical factors, to administrative capabilities - for accomplishing an effective and impactful project. This report summarizes the high-level project design and administrative considerations for conducting a successful transportation project.
Authors: Kelly, K.; Singer, M.
Analysis of the Effect of ZEV Policies: State Level Incentives and the California Zero-Emission Vehicle Regulations
9/7/2017
This report assesses the effect of state-level policies on the sales of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). Two analysis approaches are applied. The first approach assesses the potential effect of state-level incentives through quantification of the monetary value of ZEV and PHEV incentives and comparison of these values to state-level sales of these vehicles. The second approach focuses on the effect of California ZEV regulations on sales in California and in the nine other states that have adopted these regulations. ZEV and PHEV sales in these ten states are projected through 2025 under a variety of scenarios based on the regulations and associated historic trends in sales and credit balances earned under these regulations.
Zero Emission Bay Area (ZEBA) Fuel Cell Bus Demonstration Results: Sixth Report
9/1/2017
This report presents results of a demonstration of fuel cell electric buses (FCEB) operating in Oakland, California. Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit) leads the Zero Emission Bay Area (ZEBA) demonstration, which includes 13 advanced-design fuel cell buses and two hydrogen fueling stations. The ZEBA partners are collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to evaluate the buses in revenue service. NREL has published five previous reports describing operation of these buses. This report presents new and updated results covering data from January 2016 through December 2016.
Authors: Eudy, L.; Post, M.; Jeffers, M.
