An electric taxi fleet charged by second use batteries: not just economic profit
| Date | 01 March 2013 |
| Published date | 01 March 2013 |
| Pages | 186-194 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/WJSTSD-04-2013-0018 |
| Author | Lluc Canals Casals,Beatriz Amante García |
| Subject Matter | Public policy & environmental management |
An electric taxi fleet charged by
second use batteries: not just
economic profit
Lluc Canals Casals and Beatriz Amante Garcı
´a
Engineering Projects, UPC – ETSEIAT, Terrassa, Spain
Abstract
Purpose – The road transport sector is the second biggest CO2 emissions contributor after energy
generation. In urban environments, its impact is increased due to the worse combustion engine driving
efficiency. Itis thought that electric mobility might bring some relief to big cities’ polluted air. At the
same time, car manufacturers are searching for second battery applications in order to reduce its
manufacture cost and make electric cars achievable for most people. This paper seeks to address
these issues.
Design/methodology/approach – This study presents an economic and environmental approach of
an electric taxi fleet charged with second use electric car batteries. The environment impact comes
from the possible CO2 emissions reduction due to the use of electricity instead of fuel and from reusing
the old electric car batteries instead of brand new ones. On the economic side, apart from the financial
and consumption costs and profits, the Kyoto protocol trades permit an economic evaluation of the
benefits achieved.
Findings – The results show that improvements come together with the type of electric generation
technology, but it is clear that if both sectors (road transport and energy generation) are treated
together, the emissions might substantially drop.
Originality/value – The originality of this article comes fromtaking into account two environmental
issues in the project: the reuse of “old batteries” from electric cars to enlarge their useful life and the
gas emissions analysis.
Keywords Electric vehicle, Battery, Li-ion, Second use, Road transport, Energy generation,
Electric cells, Electric motors, Electricity
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The automotive industrial world is slowly appreciating a change toward the electric
car: the not so far to come European eu ro-6 emissions regulation expect such a low
limit that it seems hard to ac hieve using the actual or even improved inter nal
combustion motors (European Commission Regulation, 2009). The electric or hybrid
vehicle is presented as an interesting alternative. But still, the two main problems fo r
selling these vehicles are the high price (mostly due to the battery costs) and the not so
long displacement range (about 200 km max) (Broussely, 2007).
In order to solve the first one, the automotive industry is searching for second uses
for the already used batteries trying to have some extra revenue and decrease the
initial selling price (Kley, 2011; Vilayanur and Kintner-Meyer, 2011). For the
displacement range, fast 15-30 minutes charging stations are considered (Bo tsford and
Szczepanek, 2009; Mun
˜oa, 2012) to be the first steps to permit longer drive trips. With
this mentioned time, the batteries can be charged up to an 80 percent of state of
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/2042-5945.htm
WorldJour nal of Science, Technology
and Sustainable Development
Vol. 10 No. 3, 2013
pp. 186-194
rEmeraldGroup PublishingLimited
2042-5945
DOI 10.1108/W JSTSD-04-2013-0018
The authors would like to thank Margarita for always telling them to look after the
environmental impacts. And they would use the occasion to thank the UPC and SEAT for the
opportunity they brought to the authors with this investigation.
186
WJSTSD
10,3
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