Companies Could Save Tons with Electric Vehicles, MIT Study Finds

February 21st, 2012 by Zachary Shahan

If companies switched out gasoline-burning vehicles with new electric vehicles for their urban delivery fleets, a new MIT study has found that they could save some serious dineros.

"New MIT research suggests that electric delivery trucks, like this one, can help both the environment and the business bottom line."

“The study, conducted by researchers at MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics (CTL), finds that electric vehicles can cost 9 to 12 percent less to operate than trucks powered by diesel engines, when used to make deliveries on an everyday basis in big cities,” the MIT News Office writes.

And, with battery costs continually coming down, “the case will only get better,” says Jarrod Goentzel, director of the Renewable Energy Delivery Project at CTL and one of four co-authors of the new study.

The study also looked at potential savings if a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) system were implemented (“in which their batteries could be plugged into the electricity grid for 12 hours overnight, as an additional resource for providing reliable electricity to consumers”).

“After running the numbers for various scenarios in which trucks are parked at slightly different times overnight, the MIT team found that businesses could earn roughly $900 to $1,400 per truck per year in V2G revenues in current energy markets, representing a reduction of 7 to 11 percent in vehicle operating costs.” Nice.

Firms would also save money on fuel, and on maintenance, because electric trucks induce less wear and tear on brakes.

All told, the operational cost per mile — the basic metric all fleet managers use — would drop from 75 cents per mile to 68 cents per mile when V2G-enabled electric trucks are substituted for internal-combustion trucks. Moreover, as Goentzel notes, “almost all these costs scale down to the individual vehicle.” Firms do not need fleets as big as 250 trucks to realize savings.

Yet again, we see that EVs are cost-competitive (well, cheaper) already. This apparently surprised some of the truck drivers, who have vowed to go electric and never go back.

Michael Payette, director of fleet equipment at Staples, found “no real surprises from a reliability perspective” and found that these findings matched up with his own, but said, “I was surprised by the drivers’ acceptance, to the point where they do not ever want to drive a diesel [truck] again.” Who would? (Oil trolls, please do not respond.)

Source: MIT | h/t REVE (& one of our awesome readers)
Photo courtesy of Staples via MIT (caption quote from MIT).

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Tags: Center for Transportation and Logistics, ctl, electric delivery trucks, MIT, Staples, v2g, vehicle-to-grid

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.

Yjdraiman

Electric cars are they conserving energy?

I worked with UPS in Chicago in the early 90’s, researching the conversion of UPS vehicles to Natural Gas as a primary fuel with overnight slow fill stations on UPS compound.
If we are to survive the Energy crisis and become energy independent, we must utilize every effort not to waste our energy resources. Innovation and technology will eventually save the day.
Electric cars are a fiction of energy conservation, (Look at all the costs associated with such technology); it is not a viable option.
We must look into other forms of fuel, and invest heavily into R&D.

YJ Draiman, Director of Utilities & Sustainability
- Bob_Wallace
  
  I’m going to bet that you and UPS parted company too soon (or perhaps soon enough for UPS).
  
  UPS currently has a number of electric delivery trucks in their fleet and they are working quite well for them.
  
  A big point you seem to have missed is that battery prices are rapidly falling….
Yjdraiman

Electric cars are they conserving energy? Rev4

Ask yourselves what is the real cost of “Electric Car”?

Note: Electricity is a secondary form of energy derived by utilizing one form of energy to produce electric current.

Let us look at the facts:

In order to produce electricity, we need some form of energy to generate electricity, whereby you lose a substantial amount of your original source of energy in the generation process.
In the process we are losing the efficiency of the initial energy source, since it is not a direct use of the energy.

Let us take it a step further. To generate electricity we utilize; coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear, hydro electric – water, photovoltaic-solar, wind, geothermal, etc. Many electricity generating plants utilize fossil fuel, which creates pollution.

Do you realize how much of the initial source of energy you lose to get the electricity you need for your electric automobile; you also lose electricity in the transmission lines.

Why are we jumping to a new technology, without analyzing the economic cost, the effective return and efficiency of such technology; while computing and measuring its affect on the environment?

Natural gas vehicles are a direct source of energy, where you get the most for your energy source – in efficiency and monetary value. Cost of natural gas to a comparable gallon of gas ranges around $1, it has higher octane and extends the life of your engine, it is also safer than gas.

In these hard economic times – I would think, you would want to get the most for your dollar – and not waste resources.

Another economic impact would be the loss of road tax on fuel, these funds are used to build and maintain the highway infrastructure.

“It is Cheaper to Save Energy than Make Energy”

YJ Draiman, Director of Utilities & Sustainability

Will High Electricity Rates Drive Innovation?
Escalating costs of OIL will produce innovation!

YJ Draiman’s vision is to make Los Angeles as the World Capital of Renewable energy and conservation.
- Bob_Wallace
  
  Apparently you don’t know that the current very low price of NG is mostly due to a temporary supply glut due to a drilling bubble.
  
  At the moment one cannot drill a new well based on the price of NG to be produced. When we burn through the glut prices will rise high enough to return rigs to the fields.
  
  Additionally we have only 20 -100 years of NG, and the 100 year estimate is highly suspect. And that’s based on 2010 rate of use.
  
  http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/future_tense/2011/12/is_there_really_100_years_worth_of_natural_gas_beneath_the_united_states_.html
  
  We’re building more gas turbines to gen electricity, we’re switching some vehicles to NG, we’re starting to sell NG to other countries. Since the “20 years” is a reasonable conservative estimate we could run out of NG in not a lot more than ten years from now.
  
  Wind, without subsidies, is now about $0.05/kWh. Cost to the customer should be no more than $0.08/kWh for off-peak EV charging. At that price you can drive an EV for “$1/gallon”. And we can produce that electricity at that price for the next many hundred years.
  
  And not have to build a great big NG retail infrastructure.
  
  Seem to me that YJ Draiman needs to step up his game….
Paulodowd

Having worked for Modec Limited…I was telling the same message 3 years ago while presenting our commercial electric truck. It staggers me the message is only being noted now.
- http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  Yep, slow people we are.
  - Bob_Wallace
    
    This sort of stuff doesn’t get covered in the news very often.
    
    If we want the message to get out then we have to keep beating the drums on and on and on.
    
    I wonder how many CEOs haven’t yet found out that they could improve their bottom line by simply getting rid of inefficient light bulbs?
- MikeB
  
  so what in the world happened to Modec ?
Electric38

Adding a solar battery charger to the mix makes it even cleaner. Having close to $0 cost for fuel (after ROI) makes sense. Delivery trucks could also be lighter, helping to save road damage.