Publication Detail

Electrification of Vehicle Miles Traveled and Fuel Consumption Within the Household Context: A Case Study From California, U.S.A.

UCD-ITS-RP-22-76

Journal Article

Policy Institute for Energy, Environment, and the Economy

Suggested Citation:
Mandev, Ahmet, Frances Sprei, Gil Tal (2022) Electrification of Vehicle Miles Traveled and Fuel Consumption Within the Household Context: A Case Study From California, U.S.A.. World Electric Vehicle Association Journal 13

Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), consisting of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), combined with the decarbonization of the electricity sector, can significantly help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector. This study used empirical data from 287 households with at least one plug-in electric vehicle in California between 2016 and 2020. We estimated electric vehicle miles traveled (eVMT), fuel consumption and utility factor at the household level, i.e., taking into consideration all vehicles. We also studied the effect of householdspecific factors—such as frequency of overlaps between vehicles, frequency of charging and frequency of long-distance trips—on eVMT, utility factor and fuel consumption within two-car households. Our results indicate that PHEVs with a range of at least 35 miles have the potential to electrify a similar share of total household miles as some short range BEVs, or can reach up to 70% as much electrification as some long range BEVs and, thus, can play an important role in decarbonizing the transport sector.

Key words: plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), eVMT, utility factor, charging behavior