Cities Electric Drive Vehicles as “Best Way” to Reduce Fossil Fuel Dependence: Analyzes: Driver Hesitation

To convert a critical mass of drivers to electric vehicle (EVs), we must first drive market penetration by establishing policies to reduce ownership cost of (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). This is according to an update on the challenges to Smart Grid in a new issue of Proceedings of the IEEE. Electric vehicles (EVs), essential to Smart Grid’s future, are considered one of the most promising ways to reduce fossil fuel dependence.

This Smart Grid special issue, “The Electric Energy System of the Future,” published in the Proceedings of the IEEE which is the world’s most highly-cited general-interest journal in electrical engineering and computer science since 1913, is one of the most comprehensive assessments of this topic to date.

According to authors of this 13-article report, the overall driving forces for Smart Grid, a fundamentally different energy system from the present one, are the new needs of more energy knowledgeable, computer savvy and environmentally conscious customers combined with regulatory changes, availability of more intelligent technologies and ever greater demands for enough energy to drive the global economy.

The report focuses on technological progress and acknowledges that, while much has been achieved to move Smart Grid forward, there is still a lot to be accomplished in three dominant areas: governmental policies at both federal and state levels, customer efficiency needs and new intelligent computer software and hardware technologies.

ELECTRIC VEHICLE UPDATE

In an article on (EVs), “Vehicle Electrification: Status and Issues,” authors Albert G. Boulanger,

Andrew C. Chu, Suzanne Maxx and David L. Waltz concede while automakers recognize that electric vehicles are critical to the future of the industry, widespread consumer adoption of

EVs is inhibited not only by actual costs but perception of costs. For example, consumers must grasp that although the current initial price for EV’s is higher than internal combustion vehicles, their operating costs are lower.

Other EV issues which need to be addressed to jump-start a transition to EVs include best practices for extraction and mining of rare earths and lithium; development and deployment of EV technologies; standardization of industry protocols of plugs and chargers; deployment of charging infrastructure; public education and national and global political will for the adoption of smart grid technology and renewable energy sources.

Source: IEEE