Effects of providing total cost of ownership information on consumers’ intent to purchase a hybrid or plug-in electric vehicle

Energy-saving technologies have a difficult time being widely accepted in the marketplace when they have a high initial purchase price and deferred financial benefits. Consumers might not realize that, in the long-run, the financial benefits from reduced energy consumption offset much or all of the initial price premium. One strategy to address consumer misconception of this advantage is to supply information on the “total cost of ownership”, a metric which accounts for the purchase price, the cost of the fuel, and other costs over the ownership period. In this article, we investigate how providing information on five-year fuel cost savings and total cost of ownership affects the stated preferences of consumers to purchase a gasoline, conventional hybrid, plug-in hybrid, or battery electric vehicle. Through an online survey with an embedded experimental design using distinct labels, we find that respondent rankings of vehicles are unaffected by information on five-year fuel cost savings. However, adding information about total cost of ownership increases the probability that small/mid-sized car consumers express a preference to acquire a conventional hybrid, plug-in hybrid, or a battery-electric vehicle. No such effect is found for consumers of small sport utility vehicles. Our results are consistent with other findings in the behavioral economics literature and suggest that further evaluation of the effects of providing consumers with information on the total cost of vehicle ownership is warranted.     

Exhaust emissions and fuel consumption of a triple-fuel spark-ignition engine powered passenger car

This paper examines the influence of compressed natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas and gasoline fuel on the exhaust emissions and the fuel consumption of a spark-ignition engine powered passenger car. The vehicle was driven according to the urban driving cycle and extra urban driving cycle speed profiles with the warmed-up engine. Cause and effect based analysis reveals potential for using different fuels to reduce vehicle emission and deficiencies associated with particular fuels. The highest tank to wheel efficiency and the lowest CO₂ emission are observed with the natural gas fuelled vehicle, that also featured the highest total hydrocarbon emissions and high NO_x emissions because of fast three way catalytic converter aging due the use of the compressed natural gas. Retrofitted liquefied petroleum gas fuel supply systems feature the greatest air-fuel ratio variations that result in the lowest TtW efficiency and in the highest NO_x emissions of the liquefied gas fuelled vehicle.     

California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard: Modeling financial least-cost pathways to compliance in Northwest California

The transition to low-carbon transportation fuels plays a key role in ongoing efforts to combat climate change. This analysis seeks to optimize potential alternative fuel portfolios that would lead to a 10% reduction in fuel carbon intensity by 2020 as required under California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS).We present a novel, probabilistic modeling approach for evaluating alternative fuel portfolios based on their marginal greenhouse gas (GHG) abatement costs. Applied to a case study region in Northwest California, our model enables us to quantify the financial cost of GHG reduction via each fuel pathway, as well as for a portfolio deployed to meet the LCFS target. It also enables us to explore the sensitivity of the alternative fuel portfolio, evaluating the impact of fluctuating prices, fuel carbon intensities, and technology penetrations on the makeup of the portfolio and on the average cost of GHG abatement.We find that battery electric vehicles play a critical role, as they offer the lowest-financial-cost significant abatement in almost all plausible scenarios. However, electric vehicles alone will not be sufficient to reach the target; low-carbon biofuels can be expected to play a role in the achievement of 2020 Low Carbon Fuel Standard targets.     

A network wide simulation strategy of alternative fuel vehicles

This paper presents an integrated simulator “CUIntegration” to evaluate routing strategies based on energy and/or traffic measures of effectiveness for any Alternative Fuel Vehicles (AFVs). The CUIntegration can integrate vehicle models of conventional vehicles as well as AFVs developed with MATLAB-Simulink, and a roadway network model developed with traffic microscopic simulation software VISSIM. The architecture of this simulator is discussed in this paper along with a case study in which the simulator was utilized for evaluating a routing strategy for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) and Electric Vehicles (EVs). The authors developed a route optimization algorithm to guide an AFV based on that AFV driver’s choice, which included; finding a route with minimum (1) travel time, (2) energy consumption or (3) a combination of both. The Application Programming Interface (API) was developed using Visual Basic to simulate the vehicle models/algorithms developed in MATLAB and direct vehicles in a roadway network model developed in VISSIM accordingly. The case study included a section of Interstate 83 in Baltimore, Maryland, which was modeled, calibrated and validated. The authors considered a worst-case scenario with an incident on the main route blocking all lanes for 30 min. The PHEVs and EVs were represented by integrating the MATLAB-Simulink vehicle models with the traffic simulator. The CUIntegration successfully combined vehicle models with a roadway traffic network model to support a routing strategy for PHEVs and EVs. Simulation experiments with CUIntegration revealed that routing of PHEVs resulted in cost savings of about 29% when optimized for the energy consumption, and for the same optimization objective, routing of EVs resulted in about 64% savings.     

Innovative alternatives take action – Investigating determinants of alternative fuel vehicle adoption

Alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) as environmentally friendly alternatives to conventional internal combustion engines have gained increasing attention in general public. While empirical studies have begun to explore product-specific factors that drive consumer adoption of AFVs, an integrative framework of a comprehensive set of AFV adoption factors and its theoretical foundation as well as empirical validation is still missing. By drawing on theory of innovation adoption and theory of reasoned action we show that consumers’ perceptions of AFV attributes lead to a general attitude formation towards AFV. In conjunction with consumers’ subjective and personal norm, this in turn determines AFV adoption behavior. Concerning AFV attributes, compatibility, design, and relative advantage of AFVs exhibit the strongest influence on consumers’ attitude formation toward AFV. We derive implications for future research and policy makers. The latter include suggestions on how to develop and communicate AFV in order to stimulate AFV adoption.     

A choice experiment on alternative fuel vehicle preferences of private car owners in the Netherlands

This paper presents results of an online stated choice experiment on preferences of Dutch private car owners for alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) and their characteristics. Results show that negative preferences for alternative fuel vehicles are large, especially for the electric and fuel cell car, mostly as a result of their limited driving range and considerable refueling times. Preference for AFVs increases considerably with improvements on driving range, refueling time and fuel availability. Negative AFV preferences remain, however, also with substantial improvements in AFV characteristics; the remaining willingness to accept is on average € 10,000–€ 20,000 per AFV. Results from a mixed logit model show that consumer preferences for AFVs and AFV characteristics are heterogeneous to a large extent, in particular for the electric car, additional detour time and fuel time for the electric and fuel cell car. An interaction model reveals that annual mileage is by far the most important factor that determines heterogeneity in preferences for the electric and fuel cell car. When annual mileage increases, the preference for electric and fuel cell cars decreases substantially, whilst the willingness to pay for driving range increases substantially. Other variables such as using the car for holidays abroad and the daily commute also appear to be relevant for car choice.     

Environmental assessment of electrification of road transport in Norway: Scenarios and impacts

The study develops scenarios regarding the introduction of electric vehicles to the passenger vehicle fleet of Norway to reach the 2020 Norwegian greenhouse gas reduction target and a more extreme target to limit global temperature increase to two degrees. A process-based life cycle assessment approach is integrated with a temporally variable inventory model to evaluate the environmental impacts of these scenarios. We find that greenhouse gases in the reference scenario increase by 10% in 2020 in comparison to 2012; while for the more intensive improvements in conventional vehicles, this increase is reduced to 2%. For electric vehicles deployment scenarios, although the fleet share will reduce the tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions by 8–26%, with the upper end representing the two-degree reduction target, emissions reductions over the entire life cycle are only 3–15%. Electric vehicles also reduce emissions of NO_x, SO₂ and particulates reducing acidification, smog formation and particulate formation impacts, however, with addition of large numbers of electric vehicles significant trade-offs in toxicity impacts are found.     

Possibilistic fuel cycle assessment of retrofit technologies for two stroke powered tricycles

Two stroke powered tricycles are a major source of air pollution in the Philippines. A fuelcycle assessment of the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and direct injection retrofit technologies for these vehicles is conducted. The results when compared with carbureted two and four strokes units indicate that retrofitting the units to direct injection provides lower fossil energy depletion, global warming, human toxicity and photochemical ozone formation impact potentials compared to LPG fueled carbureted two stroke tricycles while the latter exhibits lower acidification and nutrification impact values. The direct injection retrofitted units show a lower aggregated impact score and dominance over four stroke units. The conversion to LPG revealed minimal environmental benefits compared to the gasoline run units.