Supporting The Electric Mobility Revolution

Supportingthe electricmobilityrevolutionTechnologies toaddress range anxiety

IntroductionA new mobility paradigm is emerging.The future will be connected, automated,shared and electric. We are already seeingthe changes: in the type of vehicles we use(more electric, automated); the way weuse them (more owned, rented, shared);and our consumption habits (more ondemand, planned). Electric vehicles (EV)play an important part in this paradigmshift. There are numerous signs that theEV revolution is underway. New EV modelsare coming to the market. Approximately400 new, battery-powered EV models willbe introduced to the market between2020 and 2025.

fig. 12010 1000per kWh2011 800per kWh2012 642per kWh2013 599per kWh2014 540per kWh2015 269per kWh2016 227per kWh2020 ForcastBelow 200per kWh2030 ForcastBelow 100per kWhDecreasing costsof batteriesfor EVsThese vehicles are increasingly affordable,as the cost of batteries – which is up to onethird of the total cost of an EV – is rapidlydecreasing. The average price per kWhdecreased by over 77 percent since 2010 andcontinues to do so (fig. 1).Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecaststhat EVs will be as affordable as fuel-poweredvehicles in the next five years, even withoutsubsidies or incentives.

EV rangesin 2020200-500 kmEV rangesThe autonomy of EVs currently on the marketranges between 200 and 500 km, which issufficient for most average user trips. Evenwhen range is not sufficient, EV chargingpoints are becoming increasingly availablethroughout Europe. Statistics from theEuropean Alternative Fuels Observatory showthat in Europe, there are more EV chargingpoints than petrol stations. Public policies arealso encouraging the acquisition and use of EVswith numerous incentives and subsidies (fig. 2).

Public policiessupporting EVsin Europefig. 2Full EVs only represented a 0.64 percent shareof the European market in 2017, witha mere 300,000 passenger EVs in circulationout of more than 198 million passengervehicles in total (source: European AlternativeFuels Observatory). So, what is preventing theEV revolution from taking off?Purchase subsidiesRegistration tax benefitsOwnership tax benefitsCompany tax benefitsVAT benefitsOther financial benefitsLocal incentivesInfrastructure incentives

TheissuewithrangeanxietyOne of the main barriers appears to bepsychological: As early as 2010, industryanalysts indicated that a phenomenon calledrange anxiety would be an important limitingfactor to the widespread adoption of EVs.Much like horseriders in the 1900shesitated to buyautomobiles becauseof the lack of pavedroads and petrolstations, potentialEV buyers fearthat they will findthemselves strandedon a roadside whentheir batteries runout, with no way ofcharging up.Bigger batteries and more charging stationswill partially address these issues, but aspreviously highlighted, autonomy of vehiclesand availability of charging points are alreadysufficient to support most of the average userneeds. This indicates that range anxiety mightnot be solely an infrastructure problem.

By mapping the user journeys for different typesof trips and vehicles, TomTom was able to betterunderstand the pain points and how EV drivers addressthem. TomTom’s research highlighted differentbehaviors for different trip lengths. Trips are consideredThe roleof locationtech‘short’ by EV drivers when they can be achieved withoutcharging. One interesting finding is that drivers indicateda preference to charge at home and hence considerthe battery need for their entire journey, i.e. gettingto their destination and back. ‘Long’ trips by contrastrequire at least one charge – either along the way orat destination before returning. For these trips, EVdrivers tend to plan and prepare for their journey usinga wide range of applications and tools, including populartrip-planning apps and websites, specialized websitesfor EV drivers, charging station apps and apps providedby car manufacturers. Drivers tend to use severalTomTom conducted a series of interviews with EVapplications to double-check information such as thedrivers to better understand range anxiety. Thelocation of charging stations, indicating a lack of trust inqualitative interviews took place at the participants’the existing services. Drivers indicated that longer tripshomes and lasted approximately two hours. Thecause them more anxiety. As a result, many of them useinterviews covered a wide range of topics: reasonsalternative modes of transportation for these journeys:to use an EV, the way they use their vehicle, what kindpetrol-powered cars or public transportation.of trips are done with the vehicle, the way they chargeit, the tools and applications used, etc. It includedThe research also highlighted a significant difference indrive-along tours in the EVs as well as user journeyterms of usage and behavior between owners of Teslamapping to understand the experience and painvehicles and owners of other EVs. It appeared drivers ofpoints. TomTom’s interviews resulted in a numberTesla vehicles were more likely to make long trips thatof driver profiles and a list of questions andtake them across borders and require charging alongfrustrations that the drivers most often askthe way. On the other hand, drivers of other brands ofthemselves or experience, including:EVs tended to avoid trips that were longer than theirvehicle’s maximum range. How far can I realistically go withmy current battery level? What is the real autonomy of my vehicle? Will I have enough battery to reach mydestination and come back home? Where can I charge along the way? Will the charging station be compatiblewith my car? Is the charging station available? What if there is traffic along myroute and I need to make a detour? How much battery will I have leftwhen I reach my destination?Further analysis concluded that itwas not the reliability or autonomyof the vehicle itself that was thecause, but rather the quality of thetools available to plan the journey.

Innovativesolutionsto rangeanxietyBased on their research, TomTom identified severalpain points that could be addressed with locationtechnology and developed the following solutionsfor range anxiety.

Reachablerange:calculatingrealistic andaccurateautonomyTomTom’s research highlighted that the autonomyclaimed by EV companies is often too optimistic andperceived as unreliable by EV drivers. With little trustin the announced autonomy, drivers tend to be verycautious with their energy budget, taking a largebuffer that limits their actual range. The rangeof EVs needs to be estimated in a realistic andaccurate way. Based on these findings.TomTom developed a solution to range anxiety,taking into account the following parameters: Vehicle characteristics: weight, energy consumptionat different speeds, acceleration and decelerationefficiency, uphill and downhill efficiency, batterycapacity and current charge. Road network characteristics: type of roads(highways, small streets, etc.), road elevation (ascents,descents), curves, intersections and stops. Traffic patterns: using historical traffic datacollected over a 10-year span that is augmented byreal-time traffic updates, TomTom is able to predictthe average speeds on different roads at any time ofthe day, which plays a major role in the actual energyconsumption of a vehicle.The resulting model accurately predicts theconsumption of an EV for a given route, providingthe actual reachable range of an EV from its currentlocation, with a given battery level. With accuraterange calculations, drivers can make better informeddecisions, reducing their risk of running out of batteryand encouraging them to go further with their EVs. Bytaking vehicle characteristics into account, the rangecalculations can be fine-tuned to any type of vehicle,including electric shuttles, buses or robo-taxis.

Eco le increasing rapidly, EV autonomy remainsa challenge in certain situations. One examplecould be a trip that is longer than expected due tounforeseen events: a detour caused by a closed road,traffic congestion or an unplanned stop. In thesecases, it becomes necessary to minimize batteryconsumption to extend the range of the vehicle.Using a specific routing algorithm developed toaddress this problem, TomTom’s eco-routing modeminimizes energy consumption while balancingtime. Similar to the reachable range technology, thiseco-routing solution takes into account differentparameters to find the most energy-efficient route,based on the road network characteristics andtraffic patterns previously described. Developers canuse TomTom’s range model to specify their vehiclecharacteristics in detail, using TomTom’s highlyaccurate map, traffic and navigation technologyto calculate a vehicle’s range at a given location oralong a given route. Already, the eco-routing modelhas shown to use up to 15 percent less energy thanan alternative fastest route, and it can be used withfuel-powered vehicles to, for example, help trucksminimize fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

Finding theright chargingstation, at theright timeSome are only accessible at specific times of theday. Some only accept certain types of payment orsubscription. Some only support specific types of plugsand voltages, making them incompatible with somevehicles. And, availability is not indicated, leavingdrivers at a charging station that is already full.fig. 3Information services tend to be limited to a specificregion, OEM or operator, which limits their usefulnessand scalability. Without accurate and completeinformation, it is difficult for an EV driver to predictwhether he or she will be able to charge at a specificcharging point. In response to these circumstances,TomTom developed a suite of EV services that providesthe following information: Accurate location of charging stations Plug and payment types AccessibilityPlug types are also an important factor to consider Operator (brand) namesand can make finding a compatible charging station Real-time availability of charging pointsa difficult task because of the wide variety ofconnectors (fig. 4). Source: EV BitzThe data is collected, aggregated, validated andformatted by TomTom, resulting in accurate andexhaustive information for 325,685 charging pointsin 54 countries, of which 125,722 provide real-timefig. 4N. AmericaJapanEUand the rest of the marketsChinaN. Americaavailability information across 15 countries.This information enables drivers to easily findcompatible charging points, reducing the numberof unpleasant surprises while increasing theirconfidence in EV journeys (fig. 3).N. AmericaJapanEUand the rest of the marketsACChinaEV drivers highlighted a number of issues in regardsN. Americato charging stations. While different services exist tolocate charging stations, the information provided bythese services is often outdated and incomplete –AC points are entirely public, otherssome chargingare private or semi-private.DCDCJapanEUand the rest of the marketsChinaJapa