California Air Resources Board

Principal Investigator/Authors: Kanok Boriboonsomsin

Contractor: University of California, Riverside

Contract Number: 24RD008

Project Status: Active

Relevant CARB Programs: Advanced Clean Trucks, Advanced Clean Fleets, Innovative Clean Transit, Low Carbon Fuel Standard, Research Program, Zero-Emission Transportation

Topic Areas: Advanced Technology & Low Carbon Transit, Zero-Emission Vehicles (ZEVs), Heavy-Duty Vehicles, Off-Road Equipment, Tracking Emissions

Research Summary:

Theobjective of this research is to characterize heavy-duty Zero-Emission Vehicles (ZEVs) real-world activity, energy consumption, charging needs and patterns, air-quality co-benefits, and pollution burden equity due to lower greenhouse gas and air pollutant emission with increased ZEV adoption.

To achieve that goal, the contract will use dataloggers and on-board sensors to collect and monitor relevant parameters. Using this collected data, the contract will analyze the real-world speed and mileage accrual of ZEVs, energy consumption including motive, regenerative, and auxiliary components, as well as tailpipe emissions such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matter (PM), ammonia (NH3), and carbon dioxide (CO2) from plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Moreover, this contract will characterize charging patterns, including charging time, location, accessibility, duration, charger specifications, and charging energy. The contract will also investigate equity considerations in ZEV adoption and the subsequent disadvantaged communities (DACs).

The data collected as part of this project will contribute to the development of a numerical energy simulation model for ZEVs. The creation of this model will provide the California Air Resources Board (CARB) with the ability to simulate energy and charging requirements for ZEVs as more advanced and energy-efficient technologies emerge in the market, filling outstanding data gaps for ZEV energy use.

Understanding differences in activity and energy needs of zero-emission heavy-duty on-road and off-road equipment compared to their conventional technology counterparts during in-use operations is critical to support and inform several zero-emission programs emission inventories.

Keywords: activity, in-use energy usage, energy modeling, NOx reductions, clean technology, heavy-duty vehicle, off-road equipment, zero-emission vehicle (ZEV), low carbon transportation, battery electric vehicles (BEVs), fuel-cell battery electric vehicles (FCEVs)