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2020 Perspectives on Electric Mobility Research, What’s Next?

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Transportation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 July 2020) | Viewed by 26765

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Mark Ferguson

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Guest Editor

McMaster Institute for Transportation and Logistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, L8S 4K1, ON, Canada
Interests: electric mobility; autonomous transport; choice modelling; supply chain; people and goods movement

Dr. Moataz Mohamed

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Civil Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L7, Canada
Interests: electric mobility; electrification of transit systems; preferences and choice modelling; optimization models and adaptive systems

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Research on electric mobility has been quite prominent since the 1980s, and has really accelerated within the past decade. In parallel with this rise in scholarship, the presence of electric vehicles on the road in many jurisdictions has gradually become an everyday occurrence, though overall penetration levels remain quite low.

Twenty years into the new millennium, it seems timely to take stock of where things stand in electric mobility research across a range of transportation domains including consumer, public transit, and fleet, while also evaluating the economic, social, and environmental implications of the rise of this new form of mobility.

Accordingly, in this Special Issue we welcome contributions that consider a diverse range of contexts that are tied to electric mobility. Special attention will be given to studies that assess the integration of electric mobility into the existing order, while evaluating how this existing order will evolve through disruption. Through these context-specific assessments, we will be in the best position to understand many of the unique barriers that hamper forward progress towards the electrification of transport from the year 2020 onward.

As examples, metropolitan bus operators often use their buses so intensely that integration of a new technology, with its charging demands, can be problematic. Mainstream consumers who would adopt must consider fundamentally new behaviours to operate an electric vehicle in their daily lives. Public charging networks have a range of integration challenges. The rise of automated vehicles is likely to usher in an entirely new order, with electric mobility having the potential to be prominently integrated.

As part of the process for this Special Issue, we will evaluate the possibility to develop an e-book that will be available in digital and paperback forms on the MDPI platform.

Dr. Mark Ferguson
Dr. Moataz Mohamed
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

Electric mobility (personal, transit, and fleet)
Modelling, simulation, and optimization
Economic, health, environmental, and social benefits
Technology diffusion and adoption
Electric mobility integration with disruptive technologies

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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22 pages, 2779 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Scalable Life-Cycle Inventory for Heavy-Duty Vehicle Production

by Sebastian Wolff, Moritz Seidenfus, Karim Gordon, Sergio Álvarez, Svenja Kalt and Markus Lienkamp

Sustainability 2020, 12(13), 5396; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12135396 - 03 Jul 2020

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 6597

Abstract

The transportation sector needs to significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions. European manufacturers in particular must develop new vehicles and powertrains to comply with recent regulations and avoid fines for exceeding

C O_{2}

emissions. To answer the question regarding which powertrain concept provides [...] Read more.

C O_{2}

emissions. To answer the question regarding which powertrain concept provides the best option to lower the environmental impacts, it is necessary to evaluate all vehicle life-cycle phases. Different system boundaries and scopes of the current state of science complicate a holistic impact assessment. This paper presents a scaleable life-cycle inventory (LCI) for heavy-duty trucks and powertrains components. We combine primary and secondary data to compile a component-based inventory and apply it to internal combustion engine (ICE), hybrid and battery electric vehicles (BEV). The vehicles are configured with regard to their powertrain topology and the components are scaled according to weight models. The resulting material compositions are modeled with LCA software to obtain global warming potential and primary energy demand. Especially for BEV, decisions in product development strongly influence the vehicle’s environmental impact. Our results show that the lithium-ion battery must be considered the most critical component for electrified powertrain concepts. Furthermore, the results highlight the importance of considering the vehicle production phase. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 2020 Perspectives on Electric Mobility Research, What’s Next?)

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13 pages, 4114 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Influence of Increasing Electrification of Passenger Vehicle Fleet on Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Finland

by Antti Lajunen, Klaus Kivekäs, Jari Vepsäläinen and Kari Tammi

Sustainability 2020, 12(12), 5032; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12125032 - 19 Jun 2020

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2272

Abstract

Different estimations have been presented for the amount of electric vehicles in the future. These estimations rarely take into account any realistic dynamics of the vehicle fleet. The objective of this paper is to analyze recently presented future scenarios about the passenger vehicle fleet estimations and create a foundation for the development of a fleet estimation model for passenger cars dedicated to the Finnish vehicle market conditions. The specific conditions of the Finnish light-duty vehicle fleet are taken into account as boundary conditions for the model development. The fleet model can be used for the estimation of emissions-optimal future vehicle fleets and the evaluation of the carbon dioxide emissions of transportation. The emission analysis was done for four different scenarios of the passenger vehicle fleet development in Finland. The results show that the high average age of the fleet and high number of older gasoline vehicles will slow down the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions during the next five to ten years even with a high adoption rate of electric vehicles. It can be concluded that lowering the average age, increasing biofuel mixing ratios, and increasing the amount of rechargeable electric vehicles are the most effective measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions of the Finnish passenger vehicle fleet in the future. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 2020 Perspectives on Electric Mobility Research, What’s Next?)

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25 pages, 6275 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Fuel-Cell Electric Vehicles: Plotting a Scientific and Technological Knowledge Map

by Izaskun Alvarez-Meaza, Enara Zarrabeitia-Bilbao, Rosa Maria Rio-Belver and Gaizka Garechana-Anacabe

Sustainability 2020, 12(6), 2334; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12062334 - 17 Mar 2020

Cited by 41 | Viewed by 6352

Abstract

The fuel-cell electric vehicle (FCEV) has been defined as a promising way to avoid road transport greenhouse emissions, but nowadays, they are not commercially available. However, few studies have attempted to monitor the global scientific research and technological profile of FCEVs. For this reason, scientific research and technological development in the field of FCEV from 1999 to 2019 have been researched using bibliometric and patent data analysis, including network analysis. Based on reports, the current status indicates that FCEV research topics have reached maturity. In addition, the analysis reveals other important findings: (1) The USA is the most productive in science and patent jurisdiction; (2) both Chinese universities and their authors are the most productive in science; however, technological development is led by Japanese car manufacturers; (3) in scientific research, collaboration is located within the tri-polar world (North America–Europe–Asia-Pacific); nonetheless, technological development is isolated to collaborations between companies of the same automotive group; (4) science is currently directing its efforts towards hydrogen production and storage, energy management systems related to battery and hydrogen energy, Life Cycle Assessment, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The technological development focuses on technologies related to electrically propelled vehicles; (5) the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy and SAE Technical Papers are the two most important sources of knowledge diffusion. This study concludes by outlining the knowledge map and directions for further research. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 2020 Perspectives on Electric Mobility Research, What’s Next?)

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Graphical abstract

12 pages, 1880 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Characterization of Daily Travel Distance of a University Car Fleet for the Purpose of Replacing Conventional Vehicles with Electric Vehicles

by Jiahang He and Toshiyuki Yamamoto

Sustainability 2020, 12(2), 690; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12020690 - 17 Jan 2020

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2306

Abstract

This study attempts to fit daily travel distances (DTD) data collected from the Nagoya University (NU) car-sharing system for one year to several distribution functions, including a lognormal mixture model. It is deemed here that the lognormal distribution performs best among the five tested single-distribution functions based on their p-values. Moreover, the lognormal mixture model can represent the driving pattern better overall with respect to the Akaike information criterion (AIC). Taking two types of electric vehicles (EVs) into consideration, the results show that 30 out of 48 vehicles can be substituted by the EV type with a larger battery capacity according to the observed DTD data and when a 95% confidence level is considered. In this exercise, the updated car-sharing system can have up to nine available vehicles at peak hour, which can reach the peak-shaving need and provides the possibility of contributing electricity for common use with the help of the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) system. Additionally, the updated system with a larger battery capacity can also reduce 24% of the CO₂ emissions. These types of systems could be widely applied to other organizations or companies in the consideration of electricity consumption and emission reduction. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 2020 Perspectives on Electric Mobility Research, What’s Next?)

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Other

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15 pages, 893 KiB

Open AccessConcept Paper

Costs and Benefits of Electrifying and Automating Bus Transit Fleets

by Neil Quarles, Kara M. Kockelman and Moataz Mohamed

Sustainability 2020, 12(10), 3977; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12103977 - 13 May 2020

Cited by 58 | Viewed by 8707

Abstract

Diesel-powered, human-driven buses currently dominate public transit options in most U.S. cities, yet they produce health, environmental, and cost concerns. Emerging technologies may improve fleet operations by cost-effectively reducing emissions. This study analyzes both battery-electric buses and self-driving (autonomous) buses from both cost and qualitative perspectives, using the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s bus fleet in Austin, Texas. The study predicts battery-electric buses, including the required charging infrastructure, will become lifecycle cost-competitive in or before the year 2030 at existing U.S. fuel prices ($2.00/gallon), with the specific year depending on the actual rate of cost decline and the diesel bus purchase prices. Rising diesel prices would result in immediate cost savings before reaching $3.30 per gallon. Self-driving buses will reduce or eliminate the need for human drivers, one of the highest current operating costs of transit agencies. Finally, this study develops adoption schedules for these technologies. Recognizing bus lifespans and driver contracts, and assuming battery-electric bus adoption beginning in year-2020, cumulative break-even (neglecting extrinsic benefits, such as respiratory health) occurs somewhere between 2030 and 2037 depending on the rate of battery cost decline and diesel-bus purchase prices. This range changes to 2028 if self-driving technology is available for simultaneous adoption on new electric bus purchases beginning in 2020. The results inform fleet operators and manufacturers of the budgetary implications of converting a bus fleet to electric power, and what cost parameters allow electric buses to provide budgetary benefits over their diesel counterparts. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 2020 Perspectives on Electric Mobility Research, What’s Next?)

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