Report on electric car trials in NE England identifies significant 'range anxiety'
Tue 13 April 2010
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Cenex, the UK’s Centre of Excellence for low carbon vehicle technologies, has reported on the deployment of four electric passenger cars in the North East of England. The project aimed to study the integration of electric vehicles into fleets, accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles in the area and studying the efficiency and performance of the vehicles.
During the six month trial, organisations took part by integrating one to four electric two seater passenger cars into their fleets and allowing qualitative and quantitative data to be collected.
The analysis showed that the operating regime used by vehicle fleets could provide a successful ‘early adopter’ market for electric vehicles.
The results of questionnaires provided to vehicle users showed that 58% of users felt more positive about electric vehicles after the trial and 88% of fleet managers felt more positive about incorporating electric vehicles into fleets, stating that the lack of public charging infrastructure was not a barrier to fleet integration.
Drive data shows that users were over cautious when planning journeys. The maximum journey length undertaken was only 25% of the average vehicle range. Range anxiety effects were significant throughout the trial with 93% of journeys commencing with over 50% battery state of charge.
Data suggests that users modify their driving style when battery state of charge reduces below 50%. The study highlights the need for more sophisticated range prediction aids onboard electric vehicles especially as the number of vehicles available to the market increases. Vehicle
operators with dedicated charging posts installed rated their charging experience higher and managed charging aspects of the vehicles more efficiency than organisations without.
During test drives the electric vehicle exceeded the general public’s expectations on all monitored performance criteria leading to 72% of the drivers stating they would use an electric vehicle as their regular car compared to 47% before the test drive. Test drivers and fleet users in the 20 to 30 age group experienced the highest opinion shift in favour of electric vehicle ownership.
The key findings and conclusions are drawn from a total of 190 questionnaires returned from the 264 different individuals who drove the vehicles during the trial.
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