Estimating electric car's emissions in Germany: an analysis through a pivotal marginal method and comparison with other methods

Author(s):  
Jérome Massiani ◽  
Jens Weinmann

In this paper, we estimate the emissions resulting from electric vehicles in Germany. We make use of EMOB, a comprehensive simulation model that provides a forecast and evaluation of the diffusion of alternative fuel vehicles in the next decades. Our method to compute emissions differs from existing ones by a "pivotal marginal" or "hourly marginal" calculation that takes into account the predicted time pattern of EV reloading and can offer a parsimonious alternative to resource intensive micro simulation models. Our approach results in EV emissions of 87 g/km in 2012 and 82 g/km in 2020. These estimates are much higher than those provided by simplified approaches (marginal and average emission) in the short run and get close to marginal emissions after 2035. Co-ordinated charging may reduce the emissions only marginally (usually less than 4 %). Generally, our findings cast doubts on the general claim that electric cars could be fuelled by renewable energy in general, and with fluctuating excess supply of renewables (wind, solar) in particular. This conclusion persists even in the presence of realistic coordination schemes.

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 2262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuefang Li ◽  
Chenhui Liu ◽  
Jianmin Jia

By using the 2017 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) data, this study explores the status quo of ownership and usage of conventional vehicles (CVs) and alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs), i.e., Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs), Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) and Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs), in the United States. The young ages of HEVs (6.0 years), PHEVs (3.2 years) and BEVs (3.1 years) demonstrate the significance of the 2017 NHTS data. The results show that after two decades of development, AFVs only occupy about 5% of annual vehicle sales, and their share does not show big increases in recent years. Meanwhile, although HEVs still dominate the AFV market, the share of PHEVs & BEVs has risen to nearly 50% in 2017. In terms of ownership, income still seems to be a major factor influencing AFV adoption, with the median annual household incomes of CVs, HEVs, PHEVs and BEVs being $75,000, $100,000, $150,000 and $200,000, respectively. Besides, AFV households are more likely to live in urban areas, especially large metropolitan areas. Additionally, for AFVs, the proportions of old drivers are much smaller than CVs, indicating this age group might still have concerns regarding adopting AFVs. In terms of travel patterns, the mean and 85th percentile daily trip distances of PHEVs and HEVs are significantly larger than CVs, followed by BEVs. BEVs might still be able to replace CVs for meeting most travel demands after a single charge, considering most observed daily trip distances are fewer than 93.5 km for CVs. However, the observed max daily trip distances of AFVs are still much smaller than CVs, implying increasing the endurance to meet extremely long-distance travel demands is pivotal for encouraging consumers to adopt AFVs instead of CVs in the future.


Author(s):  
Tanumoy Ghosh ◽  
Sudip Kumar Roy ◽  
Subhamay Gangopadhyay

The behavior of a driver of any vehicle is important in estimating heterogeneous traffic conditions with no strict lane discipline. In the present study, a micro-simulation model is used to analyze the mixed traffic condition with different drivers’ behavior parameters. The field data collected on traffic flow characteristics of multilane highways are used in the calibration and validation of the simulation model. Out of the ten coefficient of correlation (CC) parameters in the simulation model, five are used in the present study to make a model of simulation for heterogeneous traffic; the other five parameters are not considered for testing their influence on simulated capacity values as they represent very typical behavior of a driver, either in car-following, or in free-flow conditions. Two separate simulation models are made by changing the CC (CC0, CC1, CC2, CC7, and CC8) parameters, each for a four-lane divided and a six-lane divided highway as the geometric conditions of the roads and the traffic flow is different for both the cases. These models are then applied on two other sections of a four-lane divided and a six-lane divided highway to validate the parameters of the model developed earlier for other sections.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 669-680
Author(s):  
Aiman Albatayneh ◽  
Mohammad N. Assaf ◽  
Dariusz Alterman ◽  
Mustafa Jaradat

Abstract The tremendous growth in the transportation sector as a result of changes in our ways of transport and a rise in the level of prosperity was reflected directly by the intensification of energy needs. Thus, electric vehicles (EV) have been produced to minimise the energy consumption of conventional vehicles. Although the EV motor is more efficient than the internal combustion engine, the well to wheel (WTW) efficiency should be investigated in terms of determining the overall energy efficiency. In simple words, this study will try to answer the basic question – is the electric car really energy efficient compared with ICE-powered vehicles? This study investigates the WTW efficiency of conventional internal combustion engine vehicles ICEVs (gasoline, diesel), compressed natural gas vehicles (CNGV) and EVs. The results show that power plant efficiency has a significant consequence on WTW efficiency. The total WTW efficiency of gasoline ICEV ranges between 11–27 %, diesel ICEV ranges from 25 % to 37 % and CNGV ranges from 12 % to 22 %. The EV fed by a natural gas power plant shows the highest WTW efficiency which ranges from 13 % to 31 %. While the EV supplied by coal-fired and diesel power plants have approximately the same WTW efficiency ranging between 13 % to 27 % and 12 % to 25 %, respectively. If renewable energy is used, the losses will drop significantly and the overall efficiency for electric cars will be around 40–70% depending on the source and the location of the renewable energy systems.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (18) ◽  
pp. 5765
Author(s):  
Patrick Reimers

Throughout decades, conflicts related to the access and usage of various energy sources have caused political tensions between nations and confederations of states. Thus, partially to decrease the dependence on fossil fuels, a thorough transition towards renewable energies has been promoted by several regional and national governments as well as by multinational institutions such as the European Union. In this context, the automotive industry has particularly been held responsible for the production of negative externalities, such as global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG emissions), noise and air pollution. To a notable extent, these externalities were caused by vehicles running on fossil fuels such as petroleum products, including gasoline, diesel fuel and fuel oil. Accordingly, it is often argued that replacing vehicles run by internal combustion engines (ICEs) with so-called alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs), particularly with plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), is crucial to increase the sustainability of the transport sector. Moreover, several EU-member states aim to reduce the vehicle-related petrol and diesel demand to decrease their dependence on foreign energy sources. However, one must consider that there are important economic costs related to such a transition process. This paper evaluates the short-term and long-term effects of fiscal policies on the European automotive market in the period from 2010 to 2018, focusing on the impact of mentioned public incentives for AFVs. This public interventionism will be critically evaluated to examine the effectiveness of government incentives in promoting AFVs, particularly for plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs). The author argues that the rather positive sales evolution of AFVs was not caused by corresponding actual customer demand but mainly by governmental policies in an increasingly interventionist market. He acknowledges that the growing variety of available PEV models, the increasing driving range of electric vehicles, as well as their decreasing production costs due to economies of scale, have helped PEVs to become more competitive. However, the concern should be raised that mentioned public interventionism is unsustainable from a macroeconomic perspective, possibly leading to significant market distortion and a new artificial market bubble. The narrowed focus on battery electric vehicles prevents the market from further elaborating on other potentially more sustainable technologies. Moreover, from a geostrategic perspective, the transition of the European automotive industry towards electrification is likely to reduce the EU’s dependency on imported fossil fuels but enables several non-European automotive brands to conquer a significant market with their new competitive plug-in electric vehicle technologies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 1151-1154

Vehicles which run on fossil fuel are the most polluting grids in the world. Electric vehicles (EVs) are invented to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Hybrid electric cars are considered as clean and green source of driving. Just switching to renewable energy based hybrid electric vehicles for manufacturing would slash emissions by 65 per cent, according to Transport & Environment. Due to integration of various factors, like environmental concerns, very high prices of oil and the potential for peak oil, need to develop much clean alternative fuels and high end power systems for automobile has become a top priority for all governments around the word as well as vehicle manufacturers around the world. Tribrid Renewable Energy charging system for electric vehicles is an idea for the generation of electric power for EVs using integrated photovoltaic cells, micro wind turbines and piezoelectric system to electric power pistons. This Tribrid Renewable Energy charging system for electric vehicles is advanced technologies and efficient uses of them are reviewed in a comparative way and the same are presented in this paper. Along with this the recent trends in research and development for the advancement in technology of optimum energy utilization systems for future security of energy is presented.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 1438
Author(s):  
Anna Kowalska-Pyzalska ◽  
Marek Kott ◽  
Joanna Kott

Limited consumer knowledge reduces the chances of the spread of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs), and hence slows down AFV market spread. In our empirical survey conducted in the first quarter of 2020 among 1002 Poles planning to buy a car in the next 12 months or who have just bought one, we examine what socio-economic and attitudinal factors influence their willingness to buy an AFV. In particular, we are interested in exploring how AFV knowledge related to understanding of the differences between hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs), as well as brand recognition associate with the willingness to buy. To the best our knowledge, this is a unique study among consumers in Central and Eastern Europe, characterized by lower exposure to AFVs and lower purchasing power. Our results indicate that males with pro-environmental beliefs and behaviors who are interested in modern automotive technologies and have good AFV brand recognition are predominated to be willing to buy an AFV in the near future.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 377-389
Author(s):  
Arkadiusz Małek ◽  
Andrzej Marciniak

Abstract Electric vehicles are fully ecological means of transport only when the electricity required to charge them comes from Renewable Energy Sources (RES). When building a photovoltaic carport, the complex of its functions must consider the power consumption necessary to charge an electric vehicle. The performance of the photovoltaic system depends on the season and on the intensity of the sunlight, which in turn depends on the geographical conditions and the current weather. This means that even a large photovoltaic system is not always able to generate the amount of energy required to charge an electric vehicle. The problem discussed in the article is maximization of the share of renewable energy in the process of charging of electric vehicle batteries. Deep recurrent neural networks (RNN) trained on the past data collected by performance monitoring system can be applied to predict the future performance of the photovoltaic system. The accuracy of the presented forecast is sufficient to manage the process of the distribution of energy produced from renewable energy sources. The purpose of the numerical calculations is to maximize the use of the energy produced by the photovoltaic system for charging electric cars.


Author(s):  
Kohan Dolcy ◽  
Trevor Townsend

The transport sector has been identified as one of the highest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in Trinidad and Tobago owing to the increase in the number of vehicles and the inherent traffic congestion. The vehicles are mainly fuelled by conventional fuels with relatively few being alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs), primarily in the form of compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles. This research explores the current situation with the development and adoption of AFV technology in Trinidad & Tobago. In Trinidad, the natural gas supply is already well-established, refuelling stations are in operation and up to 18 original equipment manufacturer CNG vehicles are available on the market, supplemented by the option of vehicle conversion. The opposite is true for electric vehicles, with only one recognized dealer offering electric vehicles and public charging stations, and only one related market incentive in effect. Despite the number of initiatives geared toward CNG development, the 2018 vehicle conversion targets have not been realized and it would require a very aggressive approach to achieve those figures by 2020. The authors have identified the key impediments to successful attainment of the targets. They note that few of the ongoing fiscal incentives, measures or pilot projects by the government ministries that are associated with renewable energies are directly linked to the transportation sector. Additionally, since measures of effectiveness for sustainability are not being monitored, the country cannot adequately determine its progress towards sustainability. The authors propose measures towards achieving sustainable development in transportation and to overcome the constraints of data availability, perceived barriers to AFV adoption and the notion of affordability over sustainability.


2020 ◽  
Vol 119 (820) ◽  
pp. 317-322
Author(s):  
Michael T. Klare

By transforming patterns of travel and work around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the transition to renewable energy and the decline of fossil fuels. Lockdowns brought car commuting and plane travel to a near halt, and the mass experiment in which white-collar employees have been working from home may permanently reduce energy consumption for business travel. Renewable energy and electric vehicles were already gaining market share before the pandemic. Under pressure from investors, major energy companies have started writing off fossil fuel reserves as stranded assets that are no longer worth the cost of extracting. These shifts may indicate that “peak oil demand” has arrived earlier than expected.


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