Electric Vehicles

C2ES wrote a comprehensive literature review on PEVs in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States for the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI). Funded through a U.S. Department of Energy grant, the literature review is a comprehensive look at the opportunities and challenges for PEVs in these states relying on the latest research and market data.

Download the full report here or click here to download the report from Georgetown Climate Center’s website. 

July 10-11, 2012 in Washington, DC

C2ES helped the National Governors Association, Argonne National Laboratory, and the U.S. Department of Energy Clean Cities put on a PEV workshop. The workshop brought together 17 states and other stakeholders, including several PEV Dialogue Group members, to discuss issues related to technology, policy, and consumer outreach for PEVs.

Further information on the workshop including all presentations is available on the NGA website.

Over the past year, the PEV Dialogue Group has focused on three challenges – (1) making sure PEV owners can conveniently plug in at home and on the road, (2) safeguarding the reliability of America’s electrical grid; and (3) informing car buyers. The Group’s report, An Action Plan to Integrate Plug-in Electric Vehicles with the U.S. Electrical Grid, provides a roadmap for achieving these objectives. 

The Action Plan, released on March 13, 2012, recommends coordinated action by the public and private sectors at the state and local levels to harmonize regulatory approaches across the country, balance public and private investments in charging infrastructure, and help consumers understand the benefits and choices offered by PEVs.

In developing its recommendations, the Dialogue Group produced two other reports – a summary of PEV state of play, and a literature review of the challenges facing the PEV market.  

To meet our climate, energy, and transportation challenges, we must also push ahead with stronger fuel economy standards, advance other alternative fuels and technologies, and pursue other innovative strategies. PEVs are only part of the solution, but potentially, a significant one.

Using the Action Plan as a foundation, C2ES will continue working with the PEV Dialogue Group and others to:

• Promote state-level action by convening transportation agencies, public utility commissions, and others to develop and share best practices, and to ensure the compatibility of efforts at state and local levels.
• Provide strategic input to individual state and local PEV planning efforts, focusing on regulatory issues, optimizing public and private investments, and facilitating rollout. 
• Conduct research on PEV driver behavior as it relates to vehicle charging infrastructure needs, grid stability, transportation system financing, and maximizing electric miles traveled.
• Provide tools and information to educate consumers on the PEV value proposition and PEV technology.

June 25-26, 2012 in Raleigh, North Carolina

Press release

The City of Raleigh hosted the second workshop C2ES has conducted for a Peer Exchange for State Departments of Transportation on Electric Vehicles. The workshop brought together representatives from each of the eight states participating in the project along with national representatives from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the Federal Highway Administration, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

At the workshop, C2ES introduced a draft of the project’s main product, the PEV Readiness Self-Assessment Tool. An overview of the tool is available in the presentation linked to at the bottom of this page. The remainder of the workshop focused on charging infrastructure issues with sessions titled:

• The Evolution of Action on Electric Vehicles: Stimulus Funding, Jobs, and Changing Leadership
• Who Builds What Where? Roles for Transportation Departments in Charging Infrastructure Deployment
• Sustaining Electric Vehicles and Infrastructure after the Stimulus and through Leadership Change
• Harmonizing PEV Promotion with Transportation Finance Concerns

Download the full workshop agenda. Presentations from the workshop are listed below.

• PEV Readiness Self-Assessment Tool Overview, Nick Nigro and Charles Zhu, C2ES
• Oregon’s EV Charging Network, Art James, Oregon DOT
• Ohio's PEV Readiness Strategy, Joanna Pinkerton, Ohio DOT
• North Carolina DOT, Ken Pace, North Carolina DOT
• Road Use Charge Pilot Program, Art James, Oregon DOT

May 7, 2012 in Los Angeles, California

The 2012 Electric Vehicle Symposium (EVS26) brought together many of the leaders in the plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) industry. Many PEV planning grant recipients from a recent funding opportunity by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Clean Cities Program planned to attend EVS26. Clean Cities and Argonne National Laboratory took advantage of this opportunity and invited grant recipients and industry experts to a workshop session facilitated by C2ES. During the session, over 90 participants discussed the challenges and shared best practices regarding efforts to prepare areas for PEVs and charging infrastructure deployment.

Download the handout provided to participants, a presentation by Ted Bohn from Argonne National Lab, and the summary report from the workshop session.