Automation is no barrier to light vehicle electrification

TL;DR

This paper uses a vehicle dynamics model to show that automation slightly reduces electric vehicle range but does not significantly impact battery life, indicating automation is compatible with light vehicle electrification.

Contribution

It demonstrates that automation's energy and power demands are minor, supporting the feasibility of fully electric automated vehicles without hybridization.

Findings

Automation imposes a minor range penalty on EVs

Automation has negligible effect on battery longevity

Drivers only need modest time savings to justify automation costs

Abstract

Weight, computational load, sensor load, and possibly higher drag may increase the energy use of automated electric vehicles (AEVs) relative to human-driven electric vehicles (EVs), although this increase may be offset by smoother driving. We use a vehicle dynamics model to show that automation is likely to impose a minor penalty on EV range and have negligible effect on battery longevity. As such, while some commentators have suggested that the power and energy requirements of automation mean that the first automated vehicles (AVs) will be gas-electric hybrids, we conclude that this need not be the case. We also find that drivers need to place only a modest value on the time saved by automation for its benefits to exceed direct costs.