Comparative analysis between alternative and existing charging solutions for battery electric vehicles

Battery electric vehicles have been extensively developed in recent years to answer to the ever more stringent regulations on the emissions. In order to reach higher volume penetration in the market they have to meet better and better also the end user’s expectations. The charging experience is one of the most critical elements (with the higher vehicle price). In this thesis work, charging methods that are currently on the market and others that are still in a prototype stage have been considered and their technologies and logic of operation have been analyzed and compared. The investigated new possible alternative systems (battery trailer, battery swapping and charge while driving), if compared with traditional conductive charging solutions (home recharging via wall-boxes or public recharging via columns or DC charging stations), offer potential great advantages but at the same time different challenges to be correctly addressed. Some solutions allow to reduce the time needed to recharge batteries. Others, on the other hand, allow to increase the travel distances that electric vehicles can cope with, thus increasing their exploitability and use. To perform a comprehensive and correct comparison, the benefits that each solution can bring to battery electric vehicles have been associated with a classification of parameters that have been identified in the initial phase of the activities. In this direction also a LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) study of the considered charging methods has been performed, taking in consideration the macro components that constitute each technological solution, both on vehicle and infrastructure side, and calculating their environmental impact through CO2 equivalent values. In addition, a cost analysis to implement the technologies analyzed has also been considered, taking into account both the costs required for the infrastructure and those needed to retrofit or modify the vehicles. The last part of the activity has been focused on the evaluation of the results and to crosslink them with different relevant use cases. In this way it has been possible to have quantified indications to understand where each solution is more effective both in terms of user typology (from the private user case to fleet manager one) and mission profile (from urban to highway).