Developing Infrastructure to Promote Electric Mobility

Abstract

Electric mobility, E-mobility, will play a central role in a sustainable future transport system. The potential of curbing climate change in both short and long term are significant. Emobility will also offer the possibility to leapfrog the Internal Combustion car, IC-car, economy for developing countries. The low dependence of oil will be a benefit but E-mobility will demand a well functional electricity grid. Development of this grid will be beneficial for the developing world. For the European society E-mobility will in long term offer lower operating costs, decreased dependence of oil and lower emission of pollutants and Green House Gases, GHGs. All these factors are beneficial for the European society. The transition to E-mobility will depend upon a set of different factors and will call for different actions in order to overcome the barriers of E-mobility. A well developed charging infrastructure will be important in order to offer the full potential of E-mobility. The infrastructure will develop along with the market introduction of Electrical Vehicles, EVs. It is important that there are existing charging alternatives in the early introduction phase of EV in order to avoid the stagnation in the transition toward E-mobility. In order to provide the proper conditions for E-mobility, the determining factors must be investigated and evaluated. The four main factors are economical, social, R&D and infrastructure. The European driving patterns meet the offered operating range of an EV with ease. This means that EV has the potential to become an inner city vehicle under existing conditions. The investigation of the four determining factors leads to a base from which an implementation plan is suggested. The implementation plan is directed toward governments, energy utilities and other active participants in the development. The key factors of the implementation plan are to actively engage in the market, see E-mobility as a disruptive technology, use spin-off companies and social transparency. In order to gain the most from the implementation plan it is important that the correct actions are taken at the correct time. Therefore the transition period is divided into three phases; the introduction phase, the commercial phase and the re-development phase. The introduction phase will create the basic conditions for E-mobility. Government’s main action will be to invest in EVs and offer subsidies and other incentives to major companies that will equip their vehicle fleets with EVs. These actions will send signals toward vehicle Original Equipment Manufactures, OEMs, and other actors that the market of EVs is worth investing in. During the introduction phase try-out sessions, demonstrations and hearings will be important in order to communicate the advantages of E-mobility to society. Energy utilities will work to create roaming deals and standardization of important components and characteristics. The commercial phase is the most important phase for social adoption of E-mobility. During this phase commercial businesses will use EV charging a competitive advantage. New business models will be one of the keys to fully adoption of E-mobility. Cross industry alliances will reduce the initial cost, offer the service of a vehicle without owning it and leasing deals. The perception of travelling will shift and reduction of operating cost will be evaluated against travel time and planning. The re-development phase is based on a society that has adopted E-mobility. The development will proceed in order to offer more advantages to drivers but also to increase efficiency and to use the full potential of E-mobility.

Original document

The different versions of the original document can be found in:

• http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-55326