Download the report

Abstract
The air quality impacts of replacing approximately 20% of the gasoline-powered light duty vehicle
miles traveled (VMT) with electric VMT by the year 2018 were examined for four major cities in
Texas: Dallas/Ft Worth, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV)
charging was assumed to occur on the electric grid controlled by the Electricity Reliability Council of
Texas (ERCOT), and three charging scenarios were examined: nighttime charging, charging to
maximize battery life, and charging to maximize driver convenience. A subset of electricity generating
units (EGUs) in Texas that were found to contribute the majority of the electricity generation needed to
charge PHEVs at the times of day associated with each scenario was modeled using a regional
photochemical model (CAMx). The net impacts of the PHEVs on the emissions of precursors to the
formation of ozone included an increase in NOx emissions from EGUs during times of day when the
vehicle is charging, and a decrease in NOx from mobile emissions. The changes in maximum daily 8 h
ozone concentrations and average exposure potential at twelve air quality monitors in Texas were
predicted on the basis of these changes in NOx emissions. For all scenarios, at all monitors, the impact
of changes in vehicular emissions, rather than EGU emissions, dominated the ozone impact. In general,
PHEVs lead to an increase in ozone during nighttime hours (due to decreased scavenging from both
vehicles and EGU stacks) and a decrease in ozone during daytime hours. A few monitors showed a
larger increase in ozone for the convenience charging scenario versus the other two scenarios.
Additionally, cumulative ozone exposure results indicate that nighttime charging is most likely to
reduce a measure of ozone exposure potential versus the other two scenarios.

Download the report

Abstract

The present electric power delivery infrastructure was not designed to meet the increased demands of a restructured electricity marketplace, the energy needs of a digital society, or the increased use and variability of renewable power production. As a result, there is a national imperative to upgrade the current power delivery system to the higher performance levels required to support continued economic growth and to improve productivity to compete internationally. To these ends, the Smart Grid integrates and enhances other necessary elements including traditional upgrades and new grid technologies with renewable generation, storage, increased consumer participation, sensors, communications and computational ability. According to the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, the Smart Grid will be designed to ensure high levels of security, quality, reliability, and availability of electric power; improve economic productivity and quality of life; and minimize environmental impact while maximizing safety. Characterized by a two-way flow of electricity and information between utilities and consumers, the Smart Grid will deliver real-time information and enable the near-instantaneous balance of supply (capacity) and demand at the device level.

Read more and download here.

Houston’s EV Readiness Program

Houston EVSE Permitting Process

·      OSU CAR Presentation on Upcoming Research

·      GE Presentation on EVSE and Fleets

·      Electrification Coalition Presentation on Fleet Roadmap
Happy Holidays from all of us at RMI!

Project Get Ready City and Tech Advisers Call

December, 14th, 2010

General Updates

New Resources RMI – Ben Holland

·      Raleigh YouTube Video: Installing Public Charging Stations

·      DOE Technical Assistance Program: Preparing for the Arrival of Electric Vehicles

·      Charging Infrastructure Data Collection Guidelines

·      Clean Cities Webinar: Charging Infrastructure, Micro-Climate Process and Data-Collection.

·      Technology Review: BMW Group Electric Vehicle Program

·      Preparing for the Rollout of Electric Vehicles

·      King County VanPool Presentation

·      Electrification Coalition Fleet Roadmap

Data Collection RMI- Ben Holland

Project Get Ready is collecting EVSE installation information from its city partners and technical advisers. By gathering data about the installation costs and permitting times–and how each varies by location–we intend to develop best practices for EVSE infrastructure investments.

So far we’ve collected a small segment of the data, so thank you to Richmond, Houston, Kansas City and Indianapolis for providing your data.  And thank you to all of our partners for being patient in this effort.

City Updates

Indianapolis – Tim Pulliam: tpulliam@cincorp.com

·      Think North America has delivered 15 cars to State of Indiana: 12 used as state park patrol vehicles, 3 used as state pool vehicles

·      Next Round of Vehicles will be deployed by Think in near future.

·      EVSE Installations: Duke Energy and IPL are doing site assessments and determining costs of installation. First installations will be complete by end of year.

·      Secondary Battery Life: MOU between Duke Energy and Itochu Corporation to analyze battery degradation and evaluate secondary applications.

Kansas City – Larry Kinder: larry.kinder@lilypadev.com

·      Two charging stations installed

·      10 additional EVSE on the way

·      KC Plug-In Ready Task Force is working on actionable deployment plan

Rhode Island – Al Dahlberg: albert_a_dahlberg@brown.edu

·      Working with private companies that are interested in installing EVSE

·      Seeking funding for future EVSE deployment

Houston – Laura Spanjian: laura.spanjian@houstontx.gov

·      NRG EV Services, Houston, is first residential energy provider to provide funding for charging stations

·      Installing 50 fast charge and 100 level 2 throughout Houston

·      Incentives available for EVSE for purchasers of Leaf or Volt

Boulder – Paul Nelson: paul.nelson@saoradh.com

·      Boulder EV Project:  Supporting installation of 30 EVSE, City is providing rebates to put in EVSE in businesses, plan is to have 45 EVSE installed by end of 1^st Quarter 2011

·      Targeting EV deployment (PHEVs and BEVs): 100 in 2011; 200 in 2012

·      Conducting Vehicle to Building interaction

·      Some buildings in the program with EVSE will be locations that have installed PV

Toronto – Ben Marans bmarans@tfund.org

·      Fleetwise EV 300 Program is recruiting new OEM partners

·      Partnership with Nissan Canada: Committing 500 Leafs to public and private fleets.  Azure Dynamics providing Transit Connect.

·      Fleet Servicing: Fleet Karma tool developed to help fleets do analysis of current vehicles and determine need for EV. Also analyzing driver experiences.

·      Toronto Hydro installed charging stations

·      Sheraton Hotel installed 2 EVSE

·      Electric Mobility EV Conference in September 2011

Orlando – John Parker john.parker@ocfl.net

·      Launched new interactive website, which includes a locator map for tracking charging stations

·      300 public EVSE to be installed in 70-mile radius of downtown Orlando

Amsterdam – Roland Steinmetz r.steinmetz@evconsult.nl

·      100 EVSE installed in city, with 2-4 Fast Charging Stations being installed in February

·      1000 Leafs arriving in February

·      Total of 2000 EV in 2001

·      50% of difference between EV and ICE is being subsidized; free parking and charging for 1st year

EV Pilot Studies

University of Colorado – Alison Peters, Managing Director, Deming Center for Entrepreneurship

·      18 Prius PHEVs used in household study

·      13 Mile Charge may encourage public charging

o Will be able to gather data on frequency of use of public EVSE

·      Smart Grid Program enables good data collection

·      Current challenges with data collection instruments

·      1 of 5 cities to participate in Toyota program
Ohio State Center for Automotive Research – Giorgio Rizzoni, Director, OSU CAR

·      Gathered group of utilities and OEMs into consortium

·      Modeling PHEV grid integration with info provided by OEMs and Utilities

·      Analyzing battery aging in plug-in vehicle applications, as well as secondary use and aging cycles

·      Collaboration with American Electric Power, Duke Energy, First Energy, Dayton Power and Light and PJM

·      Gathered together 10 fleet vehicles to acquire data.  OSU CAR collects data off cars, using the information to inform vehicle grid models, sharing information with electric utilities.  Working closely with City of Columbus and ODOT.

·      Six EVSE on order will be located at CAR and available to public

GE Watt Stations and Fleet Purchase – Michael Mahan, Global Product Manager

·      Largest ever single EV commitment: 25,000 by 2015

·      Deployment will be coupled with about 35,000 EVSE installed around the country

·      Data sharing: Building up list on type of information to track, either data of chargers or telematics on vehicles, number of times a day charged, preferred location, etc.

·      EVSE Deployment: Will build out line over the next 2 years, by end of 2011- 58 different charging stations, indoor/outdoor enclosure, Watt Station

·      Partnership with Better Place:  Technology standards and fleet deployments, battery financing for projects abroad, working together on market development

Electrification Coalition Fleet Roadmap – Sam Ori, Director of Policy

·      Fleet Study: fleets are an ideal place where uptake could be rapid

·      Fleet managers almost always rank TCO as most significant factor

·      Route predictability could allow fleet operators to right size batteries

·      High vehicle utilization rates increase number of miles traveled, accelerating payback period of EVs for fleet operators

·      Parking facilities allow fleet operators to minimize investment in public charging and benefit from economies of scale in installation

·      Report findings:

o   Even without government subsidies, traditional hybrids are most cost effective for many fleets

o   Falling battery and component costs favor EVs by mid-decade

o   EVs and PHEVs become most cost effective option between 2016 and 2020 assuming no incentives

o   Battery residual risk is key obstacle

·      200,000 EVs on the road in commercial and government fleets by 2015

Authors: Jesse Cohn, Brandan Lai, Max Monn, Quinn Savit, Kayla Weisdorf

Abstract:

“Through PGR RI, we will prepare the state of Rhode Island for the future. We began by researching other Project Get Ready initiatives throughout the continent that have already taken steps toward implementing a functional EV infrastructure. We then evaluated the current status of the PGR RI initiative and how we could facilitate the establishment of the electric vehicle as a valid means of transportation within the state. Our subsequent role was essentially twofold: to provide research on electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) technology and manufacturers and to identify potential sites for public charging. In this report, we will discuss our entire approach, beginning with a brief history of alternative fuels and the electric car. We will then detail the present state of PGR RI, and what we specifically contributed to the progress of the venture: our compilation of EVSE technology research, a summary of the Rhode Island planning manual for installing EVSE, possible plug-in locations, and branding. Finally we will outline our recommendations for the future of PGR RI.”

Abstract

Electric vehicle adoption has the potential to wean America off its current unsustainable appetite for oil, which poses a risk to the global economy, security and environment.  The goal of this research is to assess the greenhouse gas emissions impact of electric vehicle adoption on individual and in Rhode Island on a fleetwide level between 2010 and 2030. A Battery electric vehicle reduces lifetime emissions by 90 percent compared to a conventional vehicle.  Statewide emissions impact is analyzed using scenario analysis that compares a Business-As-Usual Scenario (no plug-in vehicle adoption) with a 50% Plug-in-Vehicle Adoption Scenario (50% new vehicle sales in 2030).  The plug-in vehicle scenario reduces transportation emissions by 1.36 million metric tons (MMT), or 37 percent, for 2030, and reduces emissions by 9.6 MMT, 13%, between 2010 and 2030. The extent of electric vehicle adoption in Rhode Island is dependant on reducing vehicle upfront cost, installing a comprehensive charging infrastructure (including Level III Quick Charge stations), and developing a host of policies and public awareness campaigns in order to encourage PEV adoption.  The Low Carbon Fuel Standard, and tax rebates on the upfront cost of plug-in vehicles are two policy measures that have potential to encourage plug-in vehicle adoption. The introduction of electricity as a vehicle fuel source will shift a piece of the burden of transportation emissions onto the electric sector.  Plug-in electric vehicle adoption must be examined on a regional scale in order to assess the current grid’s capacity to support electric vehicle charging.  Implementing a valley-filling approach, like off-peak and time-of-use pricing, could greatly improve the grid’s efficiency and maximize capacity. The positive greenhouse gas emissions impact should encourage policy makers, industry, and citizenry to work together to bring about plug-in electric vehicle adoption in Rhode Island.

Summary:

“Additional charging infrastructure deployments, installed by 3rd parties, are welcome additions to
the eTec Project, as this will provide a more infrastructure-rich charging environment. However,
in order to be added to the eTec Project, all charging infrastructure most be safe and capable of
providing the same charging event information, in the same format, and at the same frequency as
the infrastructure installed by the eTec-Project participants. The DOE provided scope for this
ARRA funded project has very defined data collection, evaluation, and dissemination
requirements for a massive amount of charging infrastructure. These requirements and the mass
of instrumented vehicles and charging infrastructure necessitate that the data handling and
reporting be conducted in the most economical and similar manner possible. Therefore, any
organization can install infrastructure at their choice, but it is not possible to consider it part of
the eTec-Project unless it is installed and provides data in the same exact manner as the 12,000
units deployed by the eTec Project.”

Download it here.

Abstract:

The mass production of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) is expected to start in the coming years. Climate change, peak oil and the automotive and economic crisis have put a significant pressure on the current transportation regime. Increasing urbanisation, range and efficiency advantages of PEVs in city traffic and the problem of urban air pollution have moved cities into the focus of PEV dissemination. Three case studies were conducted in this research to analyse the functioning of PEV systems in cities. Different functions like knowledge development, market formation and resource mobilization are analysed and discussed. The main critical issues around PEVs like range, cost, and environmental performance are investigated in a city context, and corresponding recommendations for cities to become plug-in ready are outlined.

• On average, MINI-E drivers traveled 8.5 miles per trip–almost identical to ICE average of 8.6

• Total daily travel was 27 miles–greater than the  UK ICE average of 22.8

• Lack of space in the MINI (much of which is taken up by battery) was cited as a drawback.

• Charging habits: drivers charged cars on average every 2-3 days–not every night.

• Infrastructure: 87.5% of drivers saw need for public charging infrastructure BUT 75% said they could use their MINI E without a network of stations.

Read more about the study, including the press release, here.

Hawaii is working to change from the most fossil fuel dependent state to the nation’s leading example of clean energy deployment. As part of this transition, Hawaii is committing to support electric vehicles.

Transportation Energy Diversification Project: Hawaii EV Ready Rebate and Grant Program

The purpose of the Transportation Energy Diversification Project is to transform Hawaii’s transportation sector to become less dependent on liquid petroleum fuels by accelerating the adoption of electric drive vehicles and related charging equipment in Hawaii. Only commercially available technologies are available for funding.

http://hawaii.gov/dbedt/info/energy/evrebatesgrants/index_html/document_view

Key Information for the Potential EV Driver

Utility EV Rate Plans

Charge Station Installation

Charge Station Permit

Utility EV Help

Contact:

Rocky Mountain Institute’s Project Get Ready Adds Two New Cities: Kansas City and Tampa Bay!

Initiative gains momentum as diverse communities bring new challenges and opportunities for widespread electric vehicle adoption

05.13.2010 – Snowmass, CO – Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) today announced the addition of two metropolitan areas—Kansas City and Tampa Bay—to Project Get Ready, a national non-profit initiative helping cities prepare for plug-in electric vehicles (EVs).

Kansas City and Tampa Bay represent a growing number of North American metropolitan areas that are collaborating through Project Get Ready (PGR) to share lessons-learned and best practices for EV readiness. They also reveal a promising trend in the increasing geographic diversity of cities that aim to be leaders in the shift to low-carbon transportation.

“Tampa Bay and Kansas City are significant additions to PGR because along with partners like Houston, Raleigh, and Indianapolis, they are debunking the myth that EVs will be ushered in only by west coast cities that are synonymous with the green movement, like San Francisco or Portland,” commented Matt Mattila, RMI transportation consultant and PGR project manager.

While dense city centers have been the focus of many EV rollout efforts and studies, Project Get Ready officials point out that these accomplishments, while important, are not sufficient.

Planning and execution in Kansas City and Tampa Bay (which includes not only EV integration but also mass transit improvements) will have broad implications for transportation planning for all Project Get Ready partners, and other cities pursuing EV initiatives because they face challenges that are familiar to a large proportion of metropolitan areas in North America.

“While they acknowledge that public transportation is important, the car is, and will likely remain the predominant transportation option for commuters in these areas,” said Mattila. “They have been extremely proactive because they see the need to provide their community with cleaner transportation and energy options, without disrupting their lives. Rather than asking people to make sacrifices, they are offering a better option—the freedom of a personal car without the oil consumption, noise, and emissions of a traditional vehicle.”

Given the high reliance on the automobile, a conversion to EVs in these areas may generate larger societal benefits than technology adoption in areas with lower car ownership, more access to transit, and fewer vehicle miles traveled. The two large metro areas both have populations of more than two million but less than half the population density of a city in the Northeast. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Tampa and Kansas City rank 69th and 71st, respectively, on transit trips per capita. It’s no surprise they have relatively high car ownership and freeway miles traveled.

The leaders in these regions have decided to challenge the notion that lots of cars and miles traveled equates to foreign oil and highway emissions.

“As regional planners, we continually ask ourselves what opportunities exist to reduce our dependence on oil and fossil fuels,” said Avera Wynne, planning director of the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. “Project Get Ready gives us a way to work towards that goal. People are biting off different pieces of the apple at different times, and this gives cities with unique regional challenges a way to learn from cities that have already built a framework for their energy policy.”

Tampa Bay in particular will also serve as a case study for many of the challenges associated with regional EV charging and range anxiety. According to Wynne, four area utilities are serving as partners on the project.

“The number of utilities involved, and opportunities for coordination make this region an interesting example that can help our other cities,” said Mattila. “A major challenge is the difficulty associated with the management and communication needed with a utility and vehicle charging. What if you work in one utility district, but live in another? Where would your bill come from? Do they all offer the same special EV rates? Working with cities that have multiple utilities can really drive forward innovative and replicable programs.”

Get Ready Tampa Bay will have a public outreach event on June 22nd at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

For more information on PGR and Kansas City, visit www.marc.org/newsreleases/marc050610.htm.

For more information on Get Ready Tampa Bay, visit http://getreadytampabay.org/.

Time will tell, but one thing is for certain–leaders in the electric vehicle industry are not anticipating failure. Innovation will drive the future of battery technology far faster than a white paper.

For more information on Boston Consulting Group’s report, click here.

Study: Battery electric vehicles unlikely to be cost competitive

Is the federal subsidy of up to $7500 included in the price of the electric vehicles? Yes, you can turn this option off in the “Advanced Options.”

Why aren’t battery costs factored in? The next generation of lithium ion batteries will last up to 100,000 miles. We assume that battery maintenance will be the same (if not less) than maintenance for a regular ICE.

Where did the $47,000 price tag for the Prius plug-in come from? http://seekingalpha.com/article/147324-toyota-plans-to-mass-produce-plug-in-prius-in-2012

Don’t electric vehicles just push carbon emissions from the tailpipe to the power plants? Yes, a significant electric vehicle fleet will increase carbon emissions in some areas, but electric vehicles actually get “greener” as they age we the US brings more renewable energy online.

Why is the Ford Escape plug-in $34,140? We took the price of standard Ford Escape and added $15,000 (the price of a typical plug-in conversion).

Where did the Nissan Leaf’s $27,000 price tag come from? Nissan has not publicized the price of the Leaf but they are saying it will be priced similarly to other mid-level sedans. This could be anywhere from $20,000-30,000 and we chose $27,000.

Why don’t you include carbon emissions from the manufacturing of the vehicle as well? This is something we could potentially do, but the calculation is difficult and it’s not that significant. Less than 20% of a vehicle’s carbon emissions come from its production – the majority comes from vehicle operation.

Where can I find the price of electricity in my area? Check out the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration – http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table5_6_a.html.

• Average gasoline and diesel prices by state for 2008 are calculated here with sources. Average electricity prices by state come from the EIA website.
• “Interest Rate” refers to the amount of interest paid on car payments. “Discount Rate” reflects the time value of money for net present value calculations.
• Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) – includes car payments and the cost of fuel (gas, diesel and electricity). TCO does not include residual battery value or the additional cost of battery maintenance. Maintenance costs are not initially included in the incremental cost, but users may enter annual costs savings for one vehicle over another in the “Advanced Options” section. Reports have been published forecasting lower maintenance costs for electric vehicles.[1]
• All Battery Electric Vehicles are assumed to drive all of the annual miles driven as determined by the user (BEVs have no internal combustion engine). This means that for the purposes of this calculator, users are charging their vehicle as many times as necessary to complete the annual vehicle miles driven.
• Base level MSRPs have been used for all vehicles that are currently available to the mass market. Some vehicle prices are our best estimate. For example, the MSRP for the Nissan Leaf has not been publicly released but the Nissan press release said it would be priced similarly to other mid-level sedans. This could be anything from $20,000-30,000 and we chose $27,000. In the case of the Ford Escape plug-in, we took the MSRP for the hybrid Escape and added $15,000 (the cost of a typical plug-in conversion).
• Most of the Internal Combustion Engine vehicles were selected based on the Top Ten Best Selling Vehicles of 2008.[2] All MSRP and MPG figures for vehicles currently available on the market refer to 2008-year models. MSRP numbers come from http://www.cars.com and MPG numbers come ftom http://fueleconomy.gov. The Jetta TDI was included because of its ‘Green Car of the Year’ award by Green Car Journal. The list of plug-in vehicles included to date is by no means all-inclusive; RMI will work to include additional makes and models in the near future.
• RMI expects the cost of plug-in vehicles to come down significantly in the future with scale and advances in technology.

Generation Mix Assumed

In order to calculate the CO2 equivalent green house gas emissions relating to electricity use, the following generation mix was assumed:[4]

Multipliers of 25 and 298 were used for CH₄ and NO₂ emissions respectively.

CO2 equivalent green house gas emissions of Gasoline and Diesel use were calculated using the Argonne National Laboratory’s GREET figures:

Emissions from combustion of Gasoline (g CO₂eq/gal): 8,909

Well to Pump Emissions of Gasoline (g CO₂eq/gal): 1,800

Total[5] (g CO₂eq/gal): 10,709

Emissions from combustion of Diesel (g CO₂eq/gal): 9,802

Well to Pump Emissions of Diesel (g CO₂eq/gal): 1,653

Total[6] (g CO₂eq/gal): 11,455

Subsidies

Federal subsidy figures were calculated based on the kWh battery capacity of plug-in vehicles: $2500 + $417 x each kWh of battery capacity in excess of 4 kWh up to a maximum of $7500.

Car Payments

Car payments for each vehicle are made on an annual basis over 5 years.

Monthly lease payments are calculated as 1.5% of the MSRP.

Barrels of Oil Used

Vehicle barrels-of-oil use is estimated based on a vehicle’s use of gas and diesel. Oil used for the production of electricity is not considered.

Barrels of oil saved are calculated using the following formula:

= Gallon of Gas or Diesel used x (BTU per Gallon of Gas or Diesel / Well to Pump Efficiency of Gas or Diesel) / BTU per Barrel of Oil

Driving Profiles

The three driving profiles effectively weight PHEV annual fuel consumption and annual xEV electricity consumption. The consumptions are weighted by the percent charge sustaining and percent charge depleting. The first profile assumes 10% and 90%, the second assumes 40% and 60%, and the third assumes 80% and 20%.

[2] Top 10 Best Selling Vehicles of 2008 based on U.S. News Rankings & Reviews:

http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/daily-news/090107-The-Ten-Best-Selling-Vehicles-of-2008/

[3] Taken from the ANL GREET 1.8.

[4] Taken from the ANL GREET 1.8. Sheet: Electric, Lines: 15-29.

[5] Calculation based on ANL. GREET 1.8. Sheet: Vehicles. Line: 46 and GREET 2.8. Sheet: TEC Results.

[6] Calculation based on ANL. GREET 1.8. Sheet: Petroleum, Line: 191.

Contact: Jeff Barghout at Advanced Energy <NCGetReady@advancedenergy.org>

• Create a dynamic “menu” of strategic plug-in readiness actions including the “business case” for each action.
• Provide a web database of all national (and some international) plug-in readiness activities.
• Work one-on-one with at least 5 cities on creating their coalitions and charters.
• Convene at least 20 cities as well as technical players regularly to discuss their lessons learned and best practices, and report these conversations on our website and materials.
• Provide a benchmark that will allow cities/regions to “prove” that they are ready for mass adoption of plug-ins.
• Document the progress made by participant cities in order to help quantify future demand and make it more transparent to industry.
• Provide helpful background and educational material on plug-in readiness.