Electrified Autonomous Freight Benefit analysis on Fleet, Infrastructure and Grid Leveraging Grid-Electrified Mobility (GEM) Model

TL;DR

This paper extends the Grid-Electrified Mobility (GEM) model to evaluate the economic and environmental benefits of electrifying and automating heavy-duty freight vehicles, highlighting impacts on costs and grid integration.

Contribution

The paper introduces an extension of the GEM model specifically for heavy-duty freight vehicles, enabling comprehensive benefit analysis of electrification and automation in freight transportation.

Findings

Electrification reduces fleet and infrastructure costs.

Automation impacts operational efficiency and environmental benefits.

Model adaptation provides insights into grid and environmental impacts.

Abstract

This paper analyzes the potential benefit of heavy-duty vehicle (HDV) electrification and automation on fleet cost, infrastructure cost, grid, and environmental impact. In this work, we extended the vehicle electrification benefit analysis tool: Grid-Electrified Mobility (GEM) model, which had primarily been used to study light-duty passenger vehicles (LDVs), to analyze the heavy-duty vehicle electrification. The extended model is derived for freight transportation and key results and findings on the impact of freight electrification and automation are presented and discussed.