Electric Vehicles_Technical Briefing Research

Chien-Cheng Lai - ID 665452

The Faculty of Engineering
The University of Melbourne
Technical
Research
Briefing
Paper

Electric Vehicles Charging Infrastructure

ENGR90021 Engineering Practice and Communication
Technical Research Briefing Paper

1
Table of Contents
Executive Summary .........................................................................................3
1. Introduction................................................................................................5
2. Optimal geographic location of charging points.........................................6
2.1. The p-median location model........................................................................6
2.2. The flow-capturing location model ................................................................7
2.3. The flow-refueling location model .................................................................7
3. The user behavior of EVs..........................................................................9
4. Technology of infrastructure charging stations........................................11
4.1. Types of the charging station......................................................................11
4.2. The cost of electricity ..................................................................................12
5. Conclusion...............................................................................................14
6. References ..............................................................................................15


2
Figure List
Figure 1 The p-median model..........................................................................6
Figure 2 The flow-capturing location model .....................................................7
Figure 3 Definition of EV trips, return trips and tours .......................................9
Figure 4 Fuel costs of vehicle types..............................................................13
Figure 5 Comparison between electricity and petrol fuel cost in US .............13
Table List
Table 1 Suitable cities and suburbs for charging infrastructure .......................8
Table 2 the Average travel distance by cars in VIC, NSW and QLD ............10
Table 3 The Levels of charging stations ........................................................12


3
Executive Summary
Petrol vehicles are not only increasing emissions of greenhouse gases but
also producing pollutions directly to the environment. Hence, we introduce the
Electric Vehicles (EVs) in Australia with less negative effect on the
environment. However, Australian consumers only purchased 1015 EVs in
2014. This was caused by the lack of recharging infrastructure and merely
51 public EV charging stations are established in Australia. The report
provides the research and analysis of charging infrastructure, which is divided
into three aspects:
• The optimal geographic recharging locations
• The user behavior of EVs
• Technology of charging points
Three locations models are used to determine the minimal distance travelled
by users. The research shows that the p-median model is suitable for home
EV users. The flow-capturing model is used to deploy charging points at
roadsides or near to highways. The flow-refueling location model can
implement the deployment of charging stations in metropolitan areas.
In the user behavior of EVs, a single trip is defined as short distance within 20
kilometers while a journey is regarded as long distance large than 40
kilometers over multiple destinations. Therefore, The users tend to recharge
EVs at home for a trip and use outside charging stations for a journey.
As for technology of charging stations, it consists of three types of the
charging station and costs of electricity. The level 1 station is for a standard
home 220-volt outlet. The Level 2 is the normal charging points on the
roadside. The Level 3 is high-powered super charger, which can fully charge
within 40 minutes. In addition, electricity has the lowest fuel costs with only
0.04 AUD per kilometer while gasoline costs as high as 0.16 AUD per
kilometer.


4
Finally, we provide viable recommendations for EV industries and the
Australian government as following:
• Conducting location models for deployment of charging stations
• Increasing the level 2 stations at shopping centers and working areas
• Deploying the level 3 stations in suburbs for long distance drivers
• Proposing a battery-swap method at charging stations
Similarly, Australian government can provide investment allowance to assist
charging infrastructure providers.


5
1. Introduction
With the awareness of greenhouse gas emissions caused by carbon dioxide,
eco-friendly ways to save our environment have become a pressing issue
around the world. According to the search of the United Nations (2014),
traditional fuel cars produce approximately 20% CO! of the total amount
annually throughout the world. The fuel vehicle with the conventional
combustion engine not only produces a great deal of CO! but also releases
pollutants in the air. They contribute to upper respiratory problems and may
lead to lung damage of humans. Therefore, to eliminate greenhouse gas
emissions and air pollution from fuel vehicles, Electric Vehicles (EVs) are
regarded as green alternatives and introduced with little CO! emission and no
wastes gases and exhaust fumes.
Tesla is an American leading EV manufacturer that takes a great effort to
expand the usage of EVs. According to the research at the University of
Western Australia (2012), EVs can contribute to the transformation of
transport cars in Australia. However, EVs are still not popularized and only
1015 EVs sold in Australia last year according to statistics of the Australian
Electric Vehicle Association (2015). It is believed that the lack of
infrastructure charging stations in Australia becomes major challenge. If the
issue can be solved, it could give EVs a distinct advantage in the Australian
market place.


6
The research of recharging infrastructure is comprised of three perspectives:
the optimal geographic location of charging points, the user behavior of EVs
and technology of charging stations.
2. Optimal geographic location of charging points
The charging stations is the major determinant in the Australian EVs
marketplace and the determined locations depend on a range of the factors:
the driving distance of EVs between charging points, the availability of
recharging stations at parking lots, typical driving distances by EVs user
during a day and availability of suitable sites for charging points (Speidel et
al., 2012).
Therefore, location models are introduced to determine optimal sites for the
deployment of charging stations. They are based on minimization of distance
travelled by users to the location and divided into three models: the p-median,
flow-capturing flow-refueling location models.
2.1.The p-median location model
The p-median location model searches for p facilities for the sum of the
distances travelled by each user to the facility that is the minimized distance
illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1 The p-median model (Speidel et al., 2012)


7
The p-median model is based on home locations, which are suitable for
deployment of charging points in residential areas (Speidel et al., 2012).
2.2.The flow-capturing location model
The flow-capturing location model identifies the travel routes of EV trips to
maximize the number of routes by charging stations shown in Figure 2. The
capturing model is used for the most heavily trafficked routes, so it is well-
suited to deploy the charging infrastructure close to the highway or roadside
(Speidel et al., 2012).

Figure 2 The flow-capturing location model (Speidel et al., 2012)

2.3.The flow-refueling location model
The flow-refueling location model only takes a route service into
consideration if a vehicle has sufficient fuel or electricity to travel between
successive stations. This model is suitable for the deployment of charging
stations at both statewide and metropolitan areas (McPherson et al., 2011).
According to the research by Sparking an Electric Vehicle Debate in Australia
(2013), there are demographic and geographic factors related to EV
ownership. Demographic factors comprise household income and education
levels. There are four basic measurement criteria: the household weekly
income is over 1052 AUD, at least one family member with a bachelor degree
or higher, households with broadband Internet access and more than two


8
vehicles. If the household meets one of the above criteria, then they are more
likely to purchase an EV.
Moreover, Geographic factors such as capital cities and suburbs may be
suitable for the deployment of charging infrastructure. The assessment of
criteria includes the distance from CBD and proportion of separate houses.
Based on these two factors, the most probable charging stations in each
capital city and suburbs are shown in Table 1. It is also illustrates that they
are populated areas in Australia.

Table 1 Suitable cities and suburbs for charging infrastructure (ESAA, 2013)


9
3. The user behavior of EVs
The driver’s behavior consists of trips and tours. Trips are defined as a short-
travelled distance within 10 kilometers as a single trip and 20 kilometers as a
round trip. Tours are viewed as long distance large than 40 kilometers over
multiple destinations shown in Figure 3. The EVs are expected to be
recharged for the trips at home or residential charging stations. On the other
hand, the tours are considered to rely on outdoor charging infrastructure
(Ashtari et al., 2012).
There is a comparison of tours and trips from family travel surveys in Victoria,
New South Wales and Queensland illustrated that the average of typical
commuter distance every day shown in Table 2.

Figure 3 Definition of EV trips, return trips and tours (Ashtari et al., 2012)


10

Table 2 the Average travel distance by cars in VIC, NSW and QLD (Ashtari et al., 2012)
The daily vehicle tour information can be used to determine the prediction of
infrastructure layouts in East Australia.
In Western America, electric chagrining stations proliferate and become a
profound change in user behavior. Many of them are available to use and can
be found at places such as malls, shopping centers, grocery stores,
warehouses and parking lots. These charging points were accurately
deployed based on user behavior of travelling distances (Nordelof et al.,
2014) .


11
4. Technology of infrastructure charging stations
Long charging time shows another technical challenge and business barrier.
The typical EVs can travel 200 kilometers with a single charge. With at-home
charging facility, it takes almost ten hours to fully charge by a standard home
220-volt outlet. If an EV driver stop in one site for an extended period such as
at the parking lots of the workplace during a day, a charging period of several
hours is acceptable. If EV users need to travel further than 200 kilometers,
the EV is required to recharging on the way. Nevertheless, during the
continuous journeys over multiple destinations, long charging time becomes
infeasible. Furthermore, the typical fuel car drivers get accustomed to
refueling occasionally, so it is difficult to treat a vehicle as a mobile phone,
which has to recharge it every day (Richard, 2011).
Presently, there are very few public charging infrastructure in Australian
metropolitan areas, meaning it is an major disadvantage for consumers to
charge their EVs outside instead of at home. The Australian public recharging
company, Chargepoint, currently provides 51 public charging stations
throughout Australia while there are 6444 charging points in total across the
USA (Smith et al., 2011).
4.1.Types of the charging station
There are three levels of EV recharging stations. The level 1 charging point is
the conventional power point from a standard wall outlet and takes overnight
around 8 to 10 hours for being fully charged. It defines 5 to 10 kilometers of
range per hour of charging. The level 2 recharging station is the dedicated
inverter from 15 to 25 kilometers of per hour charging and requires EV supply
equipment to be hard wired into electricity supply of a building. The level 3
charging infrastructure is regarded as the Direct Current (DC) fast charging
system up to 100 kilometers in 20 minutes with the high voltage and amp but
it requires the extra enhanced cooling system shown in Table 2 (Smith et al.,
2011).


12

Table 3 The Levels of charging stations (Smith et al., 2011)

The level 2 charging stations currently cost 1,000 USD to establish a single
station whereas the expenditure of a single Level 3 fast charger varies
between 20,000 to 50,000 USD based on the location. An Australian
company, Tritium has developed the level 3 recharging infrastructure to allow
EV customers to travel 50 kilometers by chagrining in just10 minutes (Richard,
2011).
According to Dunstan et al. (2011), over 81% respondents of Australian
vehicle users expected the EV to recharge within two hours and 23%
participants cited 30 minutes as the longest acceptable charging time.
Without the investment of charging infrastructure, the EVs are difficult to enter
Australian markets.
4.2.The cost of electricity
Different types of vehicles produce various fuel costs per kilometer illustrated
in figure 4. The Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) is known as the petrol
vehicle that has the highest fuel costs with 0.16 AUD per kilometer of all
types of cars. The average running cost of the plug-in hybrid electric
vehicle (PHEV) and Hybrid is between 0.10 to 0.11 AUD per kilometer. On
the other hand, the battery EVs cost the lowest fuel costs with only 0.04 AUD
per kilometer (Mader, 2012).


13
Figure 4 Fuel costs of vehicle types (Mader, 2012)

Moreover, the US Department of Energy calculated the fuel costs between
electricity and gasoline from 2001 to 2013 shown in Figure 5. It indicates that
the electricity price has not only been much cheaper than petrol since 2001,
but it also been far stable over the same period. Although Australian
electricity prices are approximately 55% higher than in America, it still gives
consumers a signal of the fuel saving available with the EVs compared to
petrol costs of 50% higher than in US. To increase the usage of EVs,
Western Australia provide currently offers free public charging points and
lower electricity rate for the EV users at non-peak times (Speidel et al., 2012).
Figure 5 Comparison between electricity and petrol fuel cost in US (Nordelof et al., 2014)


14
5. Conclusion
We view EVs as the best solution to reduce CO! and pollutants in transport.
Although the charging system can be used at home, a vital hurdle is the
ability to make a long continuous journey similar to fuel vehicles.
Nevertheless, the lack of recharging infrastructure becomes a major issue of
introducing EVs into Australia.
Therefore, we propose the recommendations to deal with the problem. To
optimize geographic location of charging points, three types of location
models can be used to implement the deployment of number of chagrining
points in the residential, roadside and metropolitan areas.
In the same way, Australian government can also provide incentives such as
investment allowance to support charging infrastructure providers. In the user
behavior of EVs, the level 2 charging points are suitable for parking lots at
shopping centers and offices. The drivers tend to park their EVs for a long
time at the areas.
In technology of charging stations, the level 3 chargers also known as high-
powered supercharger stations that take less than 40 minutes for a full
charge can be deployed every 170 kilometers in suburbs or beside the
highway near to petrol stations for long-distance EV travellers. In addition,
the EV drivers can use in-car GPS and Apps to search for charging points.
Furthermore, we believe the battery-swap is another solution that batteries
can be quickly removed and replaced, enabling the EV drivers to continue
their journeys in minutes instead of hours for long waiting. This method can
be placed at the recharging infrastructure that makes EVs more feasible in
the Australian market.


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6. References
Ashtari, A, Bibeau, E, Shahidinejad, S & Molinski, T 2012, PEV Charging
Profile Prediction and Analysis Based on Vehicle Usage Data. IEEE 3,
341-350.
Australian EVs sales figures 2015, The Australian Electric Vehicle
Association, viewed 15 April, < http://www.aeva.asn.au>.
Carbon Footprint Calculator 2014, The United Nations, viewed 20 April 2015,
<http://www.nature.org/greenliving/unf-carbon-calculator>.
Dunstan, C, Usher, J, Ross, K, Christie, L & Paevere, P 2011, Supporting
Electric Vehicle Adoption in Australia: Barriers and Policy Solutions,
Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research
Organization (CSIRO).
Mader, T 2012, Western Australian Electric Vehicle Trial, The University of
Western Australia.
Mcpherson, C, Richardson, J, Mclennan, O & Zippel, G 2011, Planning an
Electric Vehicle Battery-Switch Network for Australia.
AustralianTransport Research Forum.
Nordelof, A, Messagie, M, Tillman, Ljunggren S & Mierlo, J. 2014,
Environmental impacts of hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and battery electric
vehicles-what can we learn from life cycle assessment? The
International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 1866.
Richard, B 2011, Short Circuit - Hydrogen is back in favour as electric vehicle
limitations are realised, The Age.
Smith, R, Shahidinejad, S, Blair, D & Bibeau, E L 2011, Characterization of
urban commuter driving profiles to optimize battery size in light-duty
plug-in electric vehicles. Transportation Research Part D, 16, 218-224.
Sparking an Electric Vehicle Debate in Australia 2013, Department of Industry
and Science, Energy Supply Association of Australia (ESAA),
accessed 14 April 2015,
<http://ewp.industry.gov.au/files/Sparking%20an%20Electric%20Vehicl
e%20Debate%20in%20Australia.pdf >.


16
Speidel, S, Jabeen, F, Olaru, D, Harries, D & Brauni, T 2012, Analysis of
Western Australian Electric Vehicle And Charging Station Trials.
Australian Transport Research Forum.

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