Electric roads: Reducing the societal cost of automotive electrification

In this article five scenarios for fully electric road transport in Sweden are compared, looking at the total system cost for different combinations of battery systems, vehicle equipment and charging solutions, including the use of Electric Road Systems (ERS). The main objective of this work is not to provide accurate price estimations, but to help understanding the main cost drivers of transport electrification and to illustrate how the final system cost is influenced by the different parameters considered. The main conclusion obtained is that, despite the substantial initial investments required for the deployment of electric roads, a system featuring only static charging and vehicles with large size batteries results in a higher total system cost. Moreover, due to the much larger number of light duty vehicles in the fleet, the deployment of an ERS system that can be used by both long-haul and light duty vehicles is substantially more advantageous than a solution restricted only to long-haul vehicles.