Suggested Citation:
Berliner, Rosaria M., Gil Tal, Alan Jenn (2018) Estimating the Longest Trip for Plug-In Electric Vehicle Households. Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting

Long distance road trips are underreported and underestimated in many travel behavior studies. These infrequent trips of several hundred miles account for a non-trivial percentage of vehicle and household vehicle miles traveled (VMT), yet many studies tend to overlook, underreport, or misrepresent them. Overall, for households that own a new plug-in vehicle, a single trip (the longest in the last 12 month) accounts for 10% of the household’s annual VMT for almost 95% of households. In terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, 10% of the household’s GHG emissions are accounted for by that trip for approximately 90% of households in the sample. The authors explore the variables and characteristics that effect the distance of the longest-trip. They use data collected in California during June and July 2017 as part of a study that focused on plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) households. The authors estimate a log-linear model to understand the factors that influence the length of the longest road trip made in the previous 12 months. The number of household vehicles, the presence of low-range battery electric vehicles, and the number of passengers on the longest trip have the greatest impact on trip-length.