Although electric buses operate at lower noise levels and without direct emissions, only a small fraction of bus fleets in the world is electrified due to the high investment associated with the battery systems of the electric vehicles and the required charging infrastructure. To make the cost of electrification more competitive, the design of the battery pack and the charging infrastructure should be optimized for the specific operating conditions. In this paper, a method is presented that minimizes the total cost of ownership of the electric bus fleet by choosing the optimal battery size, number of charging stations, and charging power for a given schedule, vehicle characteristics and environmental conditions. The method serves as a decisionmaking aid for automotive engineers in the early vehicle design process and/or for urban transit agencies to select appropriate vehicle models. Implementation of the method in a case study showed that the optimization can reduce the costs that are influenced by the battery and charging infrastructure by 22.8%, compared to the reference vehicle and the charging configuration of the pilot project. This is mainly attributed to the reduced battery pack capacity and the higher utilization ratio of the charging infrastructure.

Data on state-of-the-art battery electric vehicles are crucial to academia; however, these data are not published due to non-disclosure policies in the industry. As a result, simulation models and their analyses are based on assumptions or insider information. To fill this information gap, we present a comprehensive analysis of the electric powertrain of a Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus (SR+) from 2020 with lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells, focusing on the overall range. On the vehicle level, we observe the resulting range in multiple test scenarios, tracing the energy path from source to sink by conducting different test series on the vehicle dynamometer and through alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) charging measurements. In addition to absolute electric range tests in different operating scenarios and electric and thermal operation strategies on the vehicle level, we analyze the energy density and the power unit’s efficiency on the component level. These tests are performed through procedures on the chassis dynamometer as well as efficiency analysis and electric characterization tests in charge/discharge scenarios. This study includes over 1 GB of attached measurement data on the battery pack and vehicle level from the lab to the real-world environment available as open-source data.

Battery electric trucks (BETs) represent a well-suited option for decarbonizing road freight transport to achieve climate targets in the European Union. However, lower ranges than the daily distance of up to 700 km make charging stops mandatory. This paper presents an online algorithm for optimal dynamic charging strategies for long-haul BET based on a dynamic programming approach. In several case studies, we investigate the advantages optimal strategies can bring compared to driver decisions. We further show which charging infrastructure characteristics in terms of charging power, density, and charging station availability should be achieved for BETs in long-haul applications to keep the additional time required for charging stops low. In doing so, we consider the dynamic handling of occupied charging stations for the first time in the context of BET. Our findings show that, compared to driver decisions, optimal charging strategies can reduce the time loss by half compared to diesel trucks. To keep the time loss compared to a diesel truck below 30 min a day, a BET with a 500 kWh battery would need a charging point every 50 km on average, a distributed charging power between 700 and 1500 kW, and an average charger availability above 75%. The presented method and the case studies’ results’ plausibility are interpreted within a comprehensive sensitivity analysis and subsequently discussed in detail. Finally, we transformed our findings into concrete recommendations for action for the efficient rollout of BETs in long-haul applications.