COMPUTER SIMULATION OF AUTOMOBILE USE PATTERNS FOR DEFINING BATTERY REQUIREMENTS FOR ELECTRIC CARS

A Monte Carlo simulation process was used to develop the United States daily range requirements for an electric vehicle from probability distributions of trip lengths and frequencies and average annual mileage data. The analysis shows that a car in the United States with a practical daily range of 82 mi (132 km) can meet the needs of the owner on 95% of the days of the year, or at all times other than his long vacation trips. Increasing the range of the vehicle beyond this point will not make it more useful to the owner because it will still not provide intercity transportation. A daily range of 82 mi can be provided by an intermediate battery technology level characterized by an energy density of 30 to 50 wh/lb (66 to 110 wh/kg). Candidate batteries in this class are nickel-zinc, nickel-iron, and iron-air. The implication of these results for the research goals of far-term battery systems suggests a shift in emphasis toward lower cost and greater life and away from high energy density. In addition, if the implementation of electric vehicles follows the "S-shaped diffusion model typical of new technologies, the optimum strategy from the standpoint of saving petroleum is to introduce near-term, intermediate, and far-term battery technologies in vehicles at the earliest date at which each battery system can be developed to the point of commercialization.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00189545
• Corporate Authors:

  Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

  3 Park Avenue, 17th Floor
  New York, NY  United States  10016-5997
• Authors:
  • Schwartz, H J
• Publication Date: 1977-5

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 118-122
• Serial:
  • IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
  • Volume: VT-2
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
  • ISSN: 0018-9545
  • Serial URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/mostRecentIssue.jsp?punumber=25

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automobiles; Conservation; Costs; Electric automobiles; Electric batteries; Electric power; Electric power supply; Electric vehicles; Electrical equipment; Energy; Energy consumption; Highway transportation; Operations research; Simulation; Storage batteries
• Old TRIS Terms: Storage battery vehicles
• Subject Areas: Energy; Environment; Finance; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00159891
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Engineering Index
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Dec 27 1977 12:00AM