Electric Vehicle Miles Traveled (eVMT) from PHEVs Used in Fleet Applications: Results from a Demonstration Project
Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) allow users to reap the benefits of an electric drivetrain while retaining the option to use gasoline when necessary. This flexibility can be valuable, however, it raises the question of how to measure the performance of PHEVs? The environmental and economic benefits of PHEVs increase in proportion to electric miles driven. This is a function of the battery size, drivetrain characteristics and efficiencies and operator driving and charging behaviors. Common practice surrounding environmental and economic assessments of PHEVs has been to assume that vehicles will be charged once per driving day. In reality, other factors may influence the driving and charging behavior of fleet operators using PHEVs, especially, since fleet operators do not pay for fuel or purchase the vehicles themselves and, as such, have little direct financial incentive to plug-in. A 2-year demonstration project involving prototype PHEVs provided the opportunity to collect real world data on fleet operator driving and charging patterns which is supplemented with in-person interviews and a web based survey. Overall some users drove more electric miles than expected (up to 1.3 times more) while 75% of users drove less electric miles than was predicted. Based on results from interviews and a web survey the authors identify practices among organizations such as user training and motivation, vehicle assignment, and charging infrastructure as the potential source of this variation in user performance. The results emphasize the potential for driver behavior and organizational decisions to affect the electric driving of PHEVs.
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Supplemental Notes:
- Alternate title: Electric Vehicle Miles Traveled from Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles Used in Fleet Applications: Results from Demonstration Project. This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADC80 Alternative Transportation Fuels and Technologies.
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Corporate Authors:
500 Fifth Street, NW
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Authors:
- Davies, Jamie
- Nesbitt, Kevin
- De Leon, Javier
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Conference:
- Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting
- Location: Washington DC, United States
- Date: 2015-1-11 to 2015-1-15
- Date: 2015
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Features: Figures; References; Tables;
- Pagination: 12p
- Monograph Title: TRB 94th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Demonstration projects; Driving; Electric vehicle charging; Performance measurement; Plug-in hybrid vehicles; Prototypes; Surveys; Travel behavior; Vehicle fleets; Vehicle miles of travel
- Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Vehicles and Equipment; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning; I90: Vehicles;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01551348
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: 15-5903
- Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
- Created Date: Jan 27 2015 11:22AM