Full lifetime cost analysis of battery, plug-in hybrid and FCEVs in China in the near future

Abstract

This paper analyzes the full lifetime cost of battery electric vehicles (BEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) in China in the near future. The full lifetime cost comprises the initial and periodic cost of owning and operating the vehicle. Compared with the conventional gasoline vehicles, the full lifetime cost of the BEVs, PHEVs and FCEVs are approximately 1.5, 0.5 and 2.3 times more in the short term, respectively, due to the higher initial costs and higher non-energy-related costs though the fuel costs are lower. The results also suggest that with reasonably anticipatable technological progress in the long term, the lifetime cost of advanced electric vehicles (EVs) can be close to that of gasoline vehicles. It is found that two aspects of action are most important to make BEVs cost-effective: to support technology improvement to decrease the high cost of BEV and to formulate high energy cost of operating the conventional gasoline car. Moreover, it is important to decrease the non-energy operating costs including registration fee, tax rate and etc., of BEVs at the same time.