Publication Detail
An Electric-Drive Vehicle Strategy for Sweden
|
UCD-ITS-RP-00-15 Presentation Series Download PDF |
Suggested Citation:
Sperling, Daniel, Timothy E. Lipman, M. Lundberg (2000) An Electric-Drive Vehicle Strategy for Sweden. Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, Presentation Series UCD-ITS-RP-00-15
EVS-17, Montreal, Canada, October 15 - 18, 2000
The large environmental impacts caused by Sweden's transport sector can be mitigated by exploiting a variety of technological innovations, especially electric-drive technologies. This paper explores an electric-drive vehicle strategy for Sweden. The strategy takes into account unique attributes of Sweden and the state of knowledge and experience with electric-drive technology.
Sweden's "unique" attributes include inexpensive and clean electricity, a strong environmental ethic, and a strong automotive sector (with strong domestic industrial commitments to buses and trucks). The state of knowledge and experience with electric-drive vehicles is characterized as follows: virtually all versions of electric-drive technology are seen to be environmentally superior to internal combustion engine vehicles; some are potentially superior in terms of consumer desires; costs of batteries will drop but remain expensive; major automotive companies have mostly abandoned plans to build and market conventional-sized battery-electric vehicles, but are on the verge of deciding whether to make major investments in fuel cell electric vehicles; many automakers are beginning to make major investments in hybrid electric vehicles; and electric-drive buses are gaining increasing attention as a strategy to reduce emissions in urban areas.
Given these observations, we explore the following strategy for Sweden:
The large environmental impacts caused by Sweden's transport sector can be mitigated by exploiting a variety of technological innovations, especially electric-drive technologies. This paper explores an electric-drive vehicle strategy for Sweden. The strategy takes into account unique attributes of Sweden and the state of knowledge and experience with electric-drive technology.
Sweden's "unique" attributes include inexpensive and clean electricity, a strong environmental ethic, and a strong automotive sector (with strong domestic industrial commitments to buses and trucks). The state of knowledge and experience with electric-drive vehicles is characterized as follows: virtually all versions of electric-drive technology are seen to be environmentally superior to internal combustion engine vehicles; some are potentially superior in terms of consumer desires; costs of batteries will drop but remain expensive; major automotive companies have mostly abandoned plans to build and market conventional-sized battery-electric vehicles, but are on the verge of deciding whether to make major investments in fuel cell electric vehicles; many automakers are beginning to make major investments in hybrid electric vehicles; and electric-drive buses are gaining increasing attention as a strategy to reduce emissions in urban areas.
Given these observations, we explore the following strategy for Sweden:
- industrial policy of designing and manufacturing heavy duty vehicles (buses and trucks) powered by electric drive;
- environmental policy of deploying small electric vehicles for on and off-road transportation applications, as well as heavy duty electric-drive vehicles targeted by industrial policy.