Impact of Battery Weight and Charging Patterns on the Economic and Environmental Benefits of Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles

By C. Shiau, Constantine Samaras, Richard Hauffe, Jeremy J. Michalek. 2009

337 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) technology is receiving attention as an approach to reducing U.S. dependency on foreign oil and emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) from the transportation sector. Because plug-in vehicles require large batteries for energy storage, battery weight can have a significant impact on vehicle performance: Additional storage capacity increases the range that a PHEV can travel on electricity from the grid; however, the associated increased weight causes reduced efficiency in transforming electricity and gasoline into distance traveled. The authors examine vehicle simulation models for PHEVs and identify trends in fuel consumption, cost, and GHG emissions for a range of battery capacities and distances traveled between charges. The authors find that PHEVs consume less gasoline than conventional hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) when charged every 200 miles or less. Under frequent charges every 25 miles or less small capacity PHEVs consume less gasoline, are less expensive, and release fewer GHGs than HEVs or large capacity PHEVs. For moderate distances of 30-90 miles between charges, PHEVs release fewer GHGs, but HEVs are more cost effective, even under a $100 per metric ton carbon tax. However, future high fuel prices or low-cost batteries can extend the range for which PHEVs are cost-competitive to 50 miles or more, and public infrastructure for charging PHEVs will increase the number of drivers who can charge their vehicles frequently. The authors conclude that energy policy targeting PHEVs should account for vehicle design tradeoffs and expected charging patterns as well as economic and environmental competitiveness.

Subfields: Automotive Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/727f5786e894123ce4407963c8b6822828e34f78

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Citations in the corpus

The political economy of coal in Poland: Drivers and barriers for a shift away from fossil fuels (2020, neutral): “Difficulties are enhanced by high costs of employment and the absence of national funds supporting NGOs (Wagner et al., 2016; Szpor and Zi� ołkowska, 2018).”
Total cost of ownership, payback, and consumer preference modeling of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (2013, positive): “Other studies performing PHEV analysis cite these primary studies [8,13].”
Influence of driving patterns on life cycle cost and emissions of hybrid and plug-in electric vehicle powertrains (2013, positive): “We assume 1 kg of additional structural weight for each kg of battery cells added to the battery pack for plug-in vehicles (Shiau et al., 2009).”
Fuel cell system economics: comparing the costs of generating power with stationary and motor vehicle PEM fuel cell systems (2004, neutral): “T.E. Lipman et al. / Energy Policy 32 (2004) 101–125 103 Letendre, 1996; Kempton et al., 2001).”
Electrical Motor Drivelines in Commercial All-Electric Vehicles: A Review (2012, positive): “Economic studies suggest that the optimum battery size corresponds to a short electric battery range [62], [63].”