Yvonne Hübner - Electric vehicle and infrastructure trials in the north east of england

Electric vehicle and

infrastructure trials in the

North East of England

Dr. Yvonne Hübner

Transport Operations Research Group

Newcastle University

SWITCH-EV trial

SWITCH-EV consortium

Programme Managed by

• Programme Nationally funded by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV)

• £7.8m over 3 years to March 2013

• Install 1300 charging points

• Public & private access, workplace, domestic & Quick charging points

• With interoperability, comms capability & EV user support

• Work with OLEV and other UK PIP projects to :

• Advance the development of common standards,

• evaluate different technologies,

• harmonise local incentives,

• understand user-behaviours & impact upon infrastructure

Plugged in Places (PIP)

Data collection

Trip summary

Journey statistics

• Average journey length: 8.93 km

• Longest journey: 117.3 km

• Average journey duration: 33:12 min

• Total journey distance: 65,036 km

• Total number of journeys: 7,196

• Total number of charges: 2,199

• Total energy transferred: 11,595 kWh

Data from Dec 2010 to May 2011

Cumulative % of total trips

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

80.00%

90.00%

100.00%

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Distance (miles)

SWITCH-EV data

DfTdata (2006)

Source: DfT Carbon Pathways Analysis

Estimate of journey length before the trial

• People were asked in the pre-trip questionnaire: “How many miles do you expect to complete per trip?”

• Compared to actual journey length, people over-estimate their trip length.

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

0-5

mile

s

6-1

0 m

iles

11

-15 m

iles

16

-20 m

iles

21

-25 m

iles

26

-50 m

iles

50 m

iles +

I cannot pre

dic

t / m

y

usage is e

xpecte

d …

How many miles do you expect to complete per trip?

Topology

Driver behaviour

Range for EVs

Work and home energy transfer

distribution

EV recharging profiles

UK power demand profile

Source: National Grid

Theoretical limits vs real world

• The carbon content of electricity for a 6 hour

recharge is:

• A minimum of 372gCO2/kWh

• A maximum of 464gCO2/kWh

• Approximately 100gCO2/kWh can be saved for

shorter recharging times

• Average from trials so far is 457gCO2/kWh

• Optimum recharging time would be overnight

(12pm – 6am)

Charging behaviour - First month

• The data shown here

is the average

charge transfer per

charging event

• It can be seen that

there is a statistically

significant increase

in power transfer

during the first month

of use

Charging behaviour - Second month

However, in the

second month,

although there is a

slight downward

trend, it can be seen

that this is not

statistically

significant.

How do you expect the top speed of the electric car will

be compared to the ICE equivalent?

The expressions on

peoples’ faces as

you are overtaking

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

about the same faster than an ICE

slower than an ICE

no expectation

% o

f re

sp

on

se

s

Before trial

After trial

I’ve reduced the

speed. I don’t race

to places, keep it

about 58mph and

I’m not using the

fuel I used to use.

How do you expect the acceleration of the

electric vehicle will be compared to the ICE?

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

about the same

faster than an ICE

slower than an ICE

no expectation

% o

f re

sp

on

se

nts

Before trial

After trial

It does overtake very

nicely actually, on a

long straight section

between here and

Bellingham it would

out-accelerate other

cars, which is

reassuring!

You can

overtake, you

can whizz by […]

Would you consider buying and EV?

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%

40.0%

45.0%

50.0%

Yes, as my primary car

Yes, but as a second car

only

No

SWITCH-EV driver responses

Only 13% of AA members

said that they “I would

seriously consider buying

an electric car within the

next two years”

Participant 1: […] if money

was no object I’d buy one…

Participant 2: …yeah, me

too…

Participant 1: … but it is an

object.

Conclusion and recommendations

• Drivers enjoy electric vehicles

• In order to change people’s attitudes

towards EVs, we need them to drive the

cars

• Vehicle range depends on driving

behaviour, topology, congestion

• CO2 emissions depend on charging

behaviour, energy mix and driving style

• Smart metering

Contact and further information

Dr. Yvonne Hübner

[email protected]

Transport Operations Research Group (TORG)

http://www.ceg.ncl.ac.uk/transport/index.htm

transportNewcastle

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/transport/