Operations of a shared, autonomous, electric vehicle fleet: Implications of vehicle & charging infrastructure decisions

Abstract

There are natural synergies between shared autonomous vehicle (AV) fleets and electric vehicle (EV) technology, since fleets of AVs resolve the practical limitations of today's non-autonomous EVs, including traveler range anxiety, access to charging infrastructure, and charging time management. Fleet-managed AVs relieve such concerns, managing range and charging activities based on real-time trip demand and established charging-station locations, as demonstrated in this paper. This work explores the management of a fleet of shared autonomous (battery-only) electric vehicles (SAEVs) in a regional discrete-time, agent-based model. The simulation examines the operation of SAEVs under various vehicle range and charging infrastructure scenarios in a gridded city modeled roughly after the densities of Austin, Texas. Results based on 2009 NHTS trip distance and time-of-day distributions indicate that fleet size is sensitive to battery recharge time and vehicle range, with each 80-mile range SAEV replacing 3.7 privately owned vehicles and each 200-mile range SAEV replacing 5.5 privately owned vehicles, under Level II (240-volt AC) charging. With Level III 480-volt DC fast-charging infrastructure in place, these ratios rise to 5.4 vehicles for the 80-mile range SAEV and 6.8 vehicles for the 200-mile range SAEV. SAEVs can serve 96 to 98% of trip requests with average wait times between 7 and 10 minutes per trip. However, due to the need to travel while "empty" for charging and passenger pickup , SAEV fleets are predicted to generate an additional 7.1 to 14.0% of travel miles. Financial analysis suggests that the combined cost of charging infrastructure, vehicle capital and maintenance, electricity, insurance, and registration for a fleet of SAEVs ranges from $0.42 to $0.49 per occupied mile traveled, which implies SAEV service can be offered at the equivalent per-mile cost of private vehicle ownership for low mileage

Autonomous vehicles: The next jump in accessibilities?

“…They will open car travel 5 to children, elderly and the disabled [2,9,10,6]. Depending on the sce-nario, they may also trigger a substantial reduction of the total vehicle fleet [11,12,13,14,15,16,17] and substantial road capacity gains [18,19,20,21].…”

Autonomous vehicles: challenges, opportunities, and future implications for transportation policies

“…Chen [53] has shown that fleet-managed AVs relieve such concerns based on real-time travel demand and established charging-station locations. Their financial analysis suggests that the combined cost of charging infrastructure, vehicle capital and maintenance, electricity, insurance, and registration for a fleet of AVs ranges from $0.42 to $0.49 per occupied mile traveled.…”

Dawn of autonomous vehicles: review and challenges ahead

“…Indeed, even nowadays is not uncommon for people to systematically opt for on-demand services in densely populated cities, when they can afford it. Because AVs fleets have no expenses with driver salaries, they can lower on-demand services prices to more affordable levels (Chen et al, 2016), making these services a natural candidate for early adoption (Wadud, 2017).…”

“…Electric vehicles and on-demand services On-demand services are also a natural stage for the massification of electric AVs (Chen et al, 2016), as these are cheaper to operate and maintain (Egbue and Long, 2012), have zero emissions (important in an urban environment), and automatically look for a charging station when low on battery. If the aboveargued rise in vehicle-as-a-service use becomes a reality, it will have as by-product a speed up of vehicle fleet replacement, thereby facilitating the introduction of new, more fuel-efficient vehicles and technologies.…”