Recharging scenarios for differently electrified road vehicles: A methodology and its application to the Italian grid

Promoting the adoption of plug-in hybrid electric (PHEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) is essential to meet local environmental requirements. A way to favour the use of these vehicles is to improve the ability to recharge vehicles at home or at the workplace, and to predict their residual energy state of charge throughout the day. This paper presents a novel user-friendly methodology to assess different recharging scenarios. The methodology was applied to a real case study on an international car manufacturer based in Italy. Several scenarios were addressed regarding the recharge at home of electrified vehicles, considering meter upgrades and different recharging speeds. The Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) case was also investigated. The results show that PHEVs are the most flexible solution where domestic slow recharging is the only or preferred choice. BEVs become viable when at least a 4.5 kW supply contract is available together with a fast-recharging infrastructure with a suitable home grid, or where daytime parking lots with recharging facilities are available. The application of the proposed methodology to a real case study suggests that this approach can usefully help decision makers to identify the type of investments to be made and where they should be carried out.