IEEE Electrification Magazine - June 2014 - 65

TABLE 1. Vehicle Specifications and Costs.
Chevrolet Volt (PHEV40)

Toyota Prius (PHEV14.3)

Nissan Leaf (BEV)

Toyota Corolla (CV)

Battery capacity

16 kWh

4.4 kWh

24 kWh

Charging time

4 h at 240 V

3 h at 120 V

8 h at 240 V

Maximum charging energy

3.3 kWh

1.47 kWh

3.3 kWh

Electric range

40 mi

14.3 mi

100 mi

Electric economy

2.5 mi/kWh

3.3 mi/kWh

4.2 mi/kWh

Gasoline economy (city)

35 mi/g

51 mi/g

26 mi/g

Retail cost

US$31,645

US$32,000

US$35,200

US$17,000

Tailpipe emissions

240 gCO2/mi

133 gCO2/mi

0 gCO2/mi

306 gCO2/mi

EPA smog score

the price offered by this utility is approximately us$0.220/kWh,
which is nearly double that in the rest of the state, and 63%
higher than the u.s. average. For the
purpose of our study, we considered
three types of pricing schemes: tou,
rtp, and flat-rate pricing. the tariff and
periods considered for each scheme are
based on the information provided by
pG&e and Comed, and they are illustrated in Figure 6.
Variations of the electricity price in
California have remained small in the
past 20 years since electricity generation is not a volatile market. Figure 7
shows the electricity price given by
three major utilities in California
since 1980. as can be seen from the
figure, the differences in price have
been small over the years. assuming
this characteristic will continue for
the next 20 years, we have considered
the tou and fixed pricing tariffs to
remain constant in time, independent of seasons. in the
case of the rtp scheme, the prices vary per hour and are
assumed to be forecasted a day in advance. however,
variations in each hour time slot are kept around a
constant range.

on the basis of this information, for the purpose of our
economic analysis, we have defined three different scenarios to project the price of gasoline for
the next ten years. the first scenario
assumes the gasoline price will continue increasing, and it sets an upward
trend to reach the order of us$5-us$6
per gal by 2023. the second scenario
establishes a flat trend around the current gasoline price. Finally, the third
scenario assumes gasoline prices will
drop to as low as us$2.5 per gal by
2023. in each scenario, the daily gasoline price is randomly generated to
represent the uncertainty involved in
the real gasoline/oil market. this is
shown in Figure 8(b).

The California
Department of
Transportation
provides detailed
information about
the socioeconomic
characteristics
and travel behaviors
of vehicle holders
statewide.

Drive Cycle

the California department of transportation provides detailed information
about the socioeconomic characteristics
and travel behaviors of vehicle holders statewide. the information is normally available in the California household
travel survey. however, we have not been able to find specific information about the daily travel distance distribution in
California. instead, other references provide statistics about

Gasoline Price
in contrast to the electricity market, the oil and gasoline
market is characterized as being highly dynamic and volatile. the price of gasoline varies daily, and the current price
is constantly affected by global economic, social, and political events. this affects gasoline prices significantly in
relatively short time periods. in California, the price of gasoline has sustained an increasing trend in the last decade
with some temporal drops, as shown in Figure 8(a). the
current gasoline price in California varies between
us$3.761 and us$4.251 per gal (1 gal = 3.785 l).

16.6%
0.0%
0%

1.5%

18.3%

Coal
Hydro
Natural Gas

18.3%

Nuclear
Oil
45.3%

Renewables

Figure 5. The fuel sources for electric power generation in California
in 2011. (Data courtesy of the California Energy Commission.)

IEEE Electrific ation Magazine / j une 2 0 1 4

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Electrification Magazine - June 2014