As electric mobility spreads globally, new threats, concerns, opportunities, and benefits arise both on the electric vehicle and the network side caused by the uncertainties associated with the use and charging of electric vehicles. Taking advantage of the “Electric Nation” public dataset that contains more than 150,000 charging events, this study discloses the most relevant aspects to determine the trends in the use of electric vehicles. This information serves as a starting point to estimate the expected battery aging and the life expectancy of electric vehicles. The first outcome is that, when only using the vehicle for mobility purposes, the functional life of the battery is largely underutilized. Considering that the electric vehicle is presented as an environmental solution, replacing it after a few years while still having a functional battery is contradictory. To avoid this, more intensive use of the battery is proposed by incorporating vehicle-to-grid services, thus accelerating the battery aging to match the vehicle’s retirement with the functional life of its battery. Results: show that considering 5, 15, 30, and 60-minute network services, vehicle-to-grid can be activated up to five times, thus maximizing the use and benefits of having an electric vehicle for both the user and the electricity network interests.

This work is also supported by the Catalan Agency AGAUR under their research group support program grant to the ENMA research group No. 2021 SGR 00226. Lluc Canals Casals acknowledges the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, the University of Melbourne and the Ministerio de Universidades, with the grant CAS22/00126 from the research stay mobility program for young researchers “José Castillejo, Modalidad B del Programa de estancias de movilidad de profesores e investigadores en centros extranjeros de enseñanza superior e investigación”, for allowing him to expand his research overseas.

Peer Reviewed