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We have modelled the market for new cars in Ireland with the aim of quantifying the values placed on a range of observable car characteristics. Mid-sized petrol cars with a manual transmission sell best. Price and perhaps fuel cost are negatively associated with sales, and acceleration and perhaps range are positively associated. Hybrid cars are popular. The values of car characteristics are then used to simulate the likely market shares of three new electric vehicles. Electric vehicles tend to be more expensive even after tax breaks and subsidies are applied, but we assume their market shares would benefit from an "environmental" premium similar to those of hybrid cars. The "environmental" premium and the level of subsidies would need to be raised to incredible levels to reach the government target of 10% market penetration of all-electric vehicles.

In the next years, the number of circulating plug-in hybrid electric vehicles was expected to increase worldwide. Hybrid electric/gasoline powertrain is considered a promising solution to meet the future goals of greenhouse gas emission reduction by road transport sector. This paper investigates the emissive and energetic behaviour of a plug-in hybrid electric passenger car over on road testing. Measurements of CO, CO 2 , NO x exhaust emissions and of main electric motor parameters were carried out by using portable emission measurement system over urban, rural and motorway routes in Naples (Italy). Routes were selected for complying with European Real Driving Emission (RDE) legislation. Moreover, an additional urban route, characterised by strong road grade and non- RDE compliant, was investigated. RDE test allowed to assess the influence of the battery state of charge, hybrid mode (charge sustaining and charge depleting), road grade and vehicle air conditioning on the exhaust emission and energy consumption. An overall advantage of charged battery and charge depleting mode was observed in terms of CO 2 emissions and fuel consumption. CO and NO x emissions are strongly influenced by driving when the vehicle's internal combustion engine starts. When it occurs in motorway patterns, CO and NO x peak emissions are observed at tailpipe. Pure electric driving, with consequent zero emissions, are guaranteed over urban strong uphill when battery is full charged.

The smart grid concept enables demand-side management, including electric vehicles (EVs). Thus way, some ancillary services can be provided in order to improve the power system stability, reliability, and security. The high penetration level of renewable energy resources causes some problems to independent system operators, such as lack of primary reserve and active power balance problems. Nowadays, many countries are encouraging the use of EVs which provide a good chance to utilize them as a virtual power plant (VPP) in order to contribute to frequency event. This paper proposes a new control method to use EV as VPP for providing primary reserve in smart grids. The primary frequency reserve helps the power system operator to intercept the frequency decline and to improve the frequency response of the whole system. The proposed method calculates the electric vehicles’ primary reserve based on EVs’ information, such as the state of charge (SOC), the arriving time and the vehicle’s departure time. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is verified by several simulation scenarios on a real-world modern power system with different generating units, such as conventional power plants, renewable energy resources, and electric vehicles.

By referring to the wider strategies set up, starting from the middle of the Nineties, by the European cities to promote a sustainable urban mobility and to the more recent concept of soft mobility, which generally includes pedestrian and cycling mobility, this contribution focuses on pedestrian mobility in urban areas, outlining criteria and methods for planning and designing networks of urban public open spaces, such as roads and squares, devoted to an exclusive or prevailing pedestrian use. First of all, the paper analyzes the multiple roles played by roads and squares within the cities: “axes” supporting different mobility flows, including the pedestrian ones, and in the meanwhile urban places in which different activities (commercial activities, meeting, and so on) take place. Grounding on that, the main reasons driving toward an organization of such spaces as urban networks have been outlined. Then, some guidelines and methodological elements, both for planning pedestrian networks and designing their elements taking into account the correspondence between foreseen uses and spatial features of each element, have been provided. Furthermore, the links between the pedestrian networks and the main junctions of other urban mobility networks, as well as between the first ones and the urban contexts have been stressed. Suggested guidelines and methodological elements have been applied and tested both on historical and suburban areas of the city of Naples; nevertheless they represent only a first step towards the setting up of a method for pedestrian networks planning and design in urban areas. Tema. Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, Vol 2 (2009): Selected Papers 2009

This paper presents an overview of issues and technologies related to the proper design of charging infrastructures for road electric vehicles. The analysis is carried out taking into account that the recharging stations of electric vehicles might be integrated in smart grids, which interconnect the main grid with distributed power plants, different kinds of renewable energy sources, stationary electrical storage systems and electric loads. The study is introduced by an analysis of the main characteristics concerning different kinds of storage systems to be used for stationary and on-board applications. Then, different charging devices, modes and architectures are presented and described showing their characteristics and potentialities. DC and AC configurations of charging stations are compared in terms of the issues related to their impact on the main grid and the design of their main components. Specific attention was devoted also to the ultra-fast DC architecture, which appears a possible solution to positively affect a wide spread of plug-in hybrid and full electric road vehicles.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are often considered a potential solution to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions originating from personal transport vehicles, but this has also been questioned due to their high production emissions. In this study, we performed an extensive literature review of existing EV life-cycle assessments (LCAs) and a meta-analysis of the studies in the review, extracting life-cycle GHG emission data combined with a standardized methodology for estimating GHG electrical grid intensities across the European Economic Area (EEA), which were used to estimate a set of environmental breakeven points for each EEA country. A Monte Carlo simulation was performed to provide sensitivity analysis. The results of the review suggest a need for greater methodological and data transparency within EV LCA research. The meta-analysis found a subset of countries across the EEA where there is a potential that EVs could lead to greater life-cycle GHG emissions than a comparable diesel counterpart. A policy discussion highlights how EV policies in countries with contrasting GHG electric grid intensities may not reflect the current techno-environmental reality. This paper emphasizes the importance for researchers to accurately depict life-cycle vehicle emissions and the need for EEA countries to enact policies corresponding to their respective contextual conditions to avoid potentially enacting policies that could lead to greater GHG emissions.

A turbocharged diesel engine numerical model, suitable for real-time ship manoeuvre simulation, is presented in this paper. While some engine components (mainly the turbocharger, intercooler and manifolds) are modelled by a filling and emptying approach, the cylinder simulation is based on a set of five-dimensional numerical matrices (each matrix is generated by means of a more traditional thermodynamic model based on in-cylinder actual cycle). The new cylinder calculation approach strongly reduces the engine transient computation time, making it possible to transform the simulation model into a real-time executable application. As a case study, the simulation methodology is applied to a high speed four stroke turbocharged marine diesel engine, whose design and off design running data are available from the technical sheet. In order to verify the suitability of the proposed model in real-time simulation applications, a yacht propulsion plant simulator is developed. Numerical results in ship acceleration and deceleration manoeuvres are shown, reducing the simulation running time of 99% in comparison with the corresponding in-cylinder actual cycle engine model.