Companies and organizations wanting to make it easier for electric vehicle owners to charge at work will soon have a new tool to do so, thanks to a study announced Thursday from UC San Diego researchers.
The study, being published in the April issue of science journal Renewable Energy, was intended to help firms working to support employees making the switch to EVs.
"Early EV adopters have tended to be wealthier homeowners who charge their vehicles with private home chargers," said Ryan Hanna, assistant research scientist at UC San Diego and co-first author of the paper. "But that is not representative of the broader population who may yet switch to an EV. We have to recognize that many of these drivers are renters, or they live in multi-dwelling units without dedicated parking spaces -- people who do not have the ability to install a private home charger.
"They need other options and most forecasts indicate that workplace charging is going to be the second-most prevalent mode of charging, behind residential charging."
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Hanna and co-first author Jeff Myers, a research associate with the UC San Diego Deep Decarbonization Initiative, worked with researchers and UCSD leaders to study how vehicle owners actually use their cars on campus.
Using data from more than 800 EV drivers at UCSD -- home to the largest EV charging network of any university in the English-speaking world -- they developed a tool to improve computational models by incorporating reported and observed habits of drivers using the university's 439 charging stations.
"We have demonstrated that using data from real EV drivers -- rather than relying on idealized or regionally-averaged assumptions -- can have a significant impact on the optimal design of a charging network," Myers said.
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For example, the team learned drivers charge their vehicles more frequently than previously assumed -- not liking to fall below 60% of full charge.
"The study shows that if workplaces take the time to understand how their employees use their electric cars and charge them, they can create charging networks that are more cost-effective, more efficient and better for the environment," said Teevrat Garg, an associate professor of economics at UCSD's School of Global Policy and Strategy and co-author of the study.
The researchers said they plan to make the computational model publicly available to help institutions design charging networks that meet the needs of their employees while keeping costs down.
According to the study's authors, organizations can use the model after collecting data with the behavior of EV drivers in their own networks and inserting it into the model. Some of the key data includes annual driving mileage, commuting mileage, whether or not they have a home charger and how often they charge at work.
Even if unable to collect this data independently, firms can still use the model by inputting behavior data of average EV drivers.
"This kind of tailored design could help organizations provide a better charging experience for their workers, support the shift to electric vehicles and contribute to sustainability goals by reducing emissions from commuting," said David Victor, a senior author of the study and professor of innovation and public policy at the School of Global Policy and Strategy. "We hope our research, along with UC San Diego's advanced EV network and ambitious climate goals, serve as a model for other institutions seeking to curb emissions by supporting the growing number of electric vehicles on the road."
