Field test fathoms out economic potential for electric mobility
The researchers equip conventional vehicles of fleet operators participating in the trial with smartphones that measure their mobility behaviour. Beginning early next year, the software developed by TUM’s Institute of Automotive Technology will simulate the operation of an electric vehicle on each of the smartphones. The phones will record the exact location of the vehicle via GPS, along with driving behaviour like acceleration, deceleration and turns. Once these driving data have been collected, the software will calculate the energy consumption for a fictional electric vehicle and display the charge status of a virtual battery.
In parallel to the simulation phase, the data calculated will be validated against a real electric car. “This will show various taxi and commercial operators that partial electrification of their fleet would not only be technical feasible, but would already today offer economic and environmental benefits,” maintains engineer Benedikt Jäger from TUM’s Institute of Automotive Technology.
For the researchers, the biggest challenge lies in establishing the measures needed for electric vehicles to handle the considerable distances driven by taxis and commercial vehicles every day. Electric vehicles have different ranges, depending on their intended purpose. So one of the important findings from the project will be the location of additional charging stations that would need to be installed on taxi and commercial routes.
This information would be of particular interest to the VEM project managers at Munich’s urban utilities provider SWM and the central Munich transport organization MVG, as they are in charge of expanding the charging station infrastructure for electric vehicles in the Munich area. Other partners involved in the project include the Munich taxi drivers’ association and the chamber of commerce for Munich and Upper Bavaria. The VEM project is part of the “ICT for electromobility II – Smart Car – Smart Grid – Smart Traffic” electromobility research program sponsored by the German Federal Ministry for the Economy and Technology.
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