A Comparative Study of En Route Refuelling Behaviours of Conventional and Electric Vehicles in Beijing, China

Chengxiang Zhuge,Chunfu Shao,Xia Li

doi:10.3390/su11143869

Abstract

A comparative study is carried out to investigate the differences among conventional vehicles (CVs), battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) in the maximum acceptable time of diverting to a refuelling station, maximum acceptable time of queueing at a refuelling station, refuelling modes and desirable electric driving ranges, using Beijing, China, as a case study. Here, several multinomial logit (MNL) models are developed to relate the diverting and waiting times to individual attributes. The results suggest that, (1) the diverting time roughly follows a normal distribution for both CVs and electric vehicles (EVs), but the difference between them is slight; (2) EVs tend to bear longer waiting time above 10 min; (3) the MNL models indicate that income and the level of education tend to be more statistically significant to both the diverting and waiting times; (4) the most preferred driving ranges obtained for BEVs and PHEVs are both around 50 km, indicating that EV drivers may just prefer to charge for a specific time ranging from 8 to 10 min. Finally, ways to apply the empirical findings in planning refuelling and charging stations are discussed with specific examples.

Highlights

The empirical findings suggest that the most preferred driving ranges obtained for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are both around 50 km, indicating that electric vehicles (EVs) drivers may just prefer to charge for a specific time ranging from 8 to 10 min
The results suggested that the difference between conventional vehicles (CVs) and EV in the maximum acceptable diverting time is slight, but EV drivers somewhat tend to choose a longer diverting time above 10 min
In terms of refuelling modes, full refuelling is most frequently chosen for both vehicles types, accounting for about 77% and 85% for CVs and PHEVs, respectively, while only 1% of the respondents refuel their vehicles with a specific amount of fuel

Summary

Introduction

In order to promote the purchase and usage of EVs, many studies have been carried out to investigate the travel behaviour of EVs, including parking and charging behaviours [4,5,6,7] These studies have been mostly focused on the charging behaviour at destinations (or parking lots), paying significantly less attention to the possible en route charging behaviour, for example, at fast charging stations. This empirical study attempts to investigate the en route charging behaviours of both battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) at fast charging stations, compared with the refuelling behaviour of CVs. The outcomes are expected to be helpful for different EV-related stakeholders involved. A better understanding of en route refuelling behaviour could help them shape policies for EVs [8]

Methods

Results

Conclusion