The First Global View on the Progress of Clean Vehicle Technology

The Global Smart Grid Federation (GSGF) today released a state-of-the-art overview of the international developments in electric vehicles. Highlighting business opportunities, key trends and developments, and policy initiatives, it provides a total and global view on the large-scale roll-out of electric vehicles. The report concludes with a series of recommendations designed to overcome the obstacles and accelerate the use of electric vehicles.

Charging stations first and foremost

While the technology of electric transportation as a whole, and batteries in particular, is evolving very quickly, one of the biggest impediments for consumers in purchasing an electric vehicle is the so-called ‘range anxiety’. The batteries in electric vehicles run flat at a fast pace, causing the driver concern about where it can be recharged. The key to overcoming this obstacle is to increase the number of charging stations that are publicly available. We face here a typical chicken and the egg problem: with few electric vehicles, there is no real business incentive for commercial companies to build infrastructure, and without charging stations consumers refrain from buying an electric vehicle. Based on the experiences of countries where electric transportation has been successful, there was always enough supply of public chargers. Therefore, public infrastructure should be installed before the rollout of vehicles, at least to a certain extent, in order to relieve anxiety.

Sustainable policy

Preparing future large scale electric transportation deployment, it is imperative to focus on sustainable policies to support both infrastructure and vehicle deployment. In several countries where promotion for alternative fuel vehicles failed, incentives phased out too early, before successful introduction and before the market could stand on its own feet. However, countries that succeeded in promoting alternative fuel vehicles also succeeded in supporting infrastructure for the new fuel. In other words, if we decide to support the introduction of electric transportation, we must consider the rollout of sustainable policies, aptly mixed for each country. They need to be continued throughout the introduction stage, andafterwards they should be carefully and gradually phase out.

Standardization of interfaces

Various evolutions resulting from the interaction between technology producers and the safety restrictions of different power grids have resulted in the development of different standards for different countries and different brands. However, vehicles are global products, rolling in and out of countries, making interoperability and standardization of these interfaces imperative.

Share and develop

Many countries are currently testing how to integrate electric vehicles into the grids and into their country’s economic structures. Global Smart Grid Federation recommends that countries share their experiences and grid analyses with each other. Now that technologies for electric vehicles, through demonstration programs everywhere, have proved themselves to be geared up to go, it is necessary to consider and share information about cases that might enhance the value of electric vehicles, in addition to looking into the usage data. These analyses will lead the way to new possibilities for the user and for promoting electric vehicles.

Global Smart Grid Federation

The Global Smart Grid Federation (GSGF) is a global stakeholder organization committed to creating smarter, cleaner electrical systems around the world. GSGF is comprised of national smart grid organizations from fifteen countries and the European Union. GSGF brings together the intellectual capital of smart grid stakeholder organizations from around the world to:

• facilitate the collaboration of national and international Smart Grid nongovernmental organizations and governmental organizations from around the world to conduct and foster research in the application of Smart Grid technologies;
• support rapid implementation of Smart Grid technologies by establishing itself as the global center for competency on Smart Grid technologies and policy issues;
• foster the international exchange of ideas and best practices on energy issues, including reliability, efficiency, security, and climate change;
• create avenues for dialogue and cooperation between the public and private sectors in countries around the world on issues relating to the deployment of Smart Grid technologies.

These and other activities help member organizations initiate changes to their countries’ electric systems to enhance security, increase flexibility, reduce emissions, and maintain affordability, reliability, and accessibility.

For more information

• Download the full report (low-res .pdf – 644KB)
• GSGF: www.globalsmartgridfederation.org
• The working groups: www.globalsmartgridfederation.org/about-gsgf/working-groups
• The members: www.globalsmartgridfederation.org/members

Contact

Lee Coogan
Assistant Secretary
1155 Fifteenth Street, NW
Suite 500
Washington, DC 2005
T: +1 202 530 9740
F: +1 202 530 0659
lee.coogan@globalsmartgridfederation.org

Isabelle Borremans
Communication
Dennenstraat 7
3600 Genk
Belgium
T: +32 16 32 10 12
isabelle.borremans@globalsmartgridfederation.org