Abstract:

Mobility is going to change rapidly in the coming years as electric vehicles (EV) proliferate, ride sharing continues to grow, and eventually autonomous vehicles (AV) enter urban fleets. This is especially true in cities where new forms of mobility are concentrated and where investment in supporting infrastructure is needed to accommodate this growth. These changes coincide with the evolution towards cleaner, more decentralized and digitalized energy systems and services, and increasing electrification. Mobility integration with electricity system and grid edge technologies is emerging. As a consequence, EV charging could create local constraints and stability problems on power networks and reduce the environmental benefits of electrification. There is an opportunity to design a different future, and reap both environmental and economic benefits with a call to action around the following three principles to be acted upon: Take a multi-stakeholder and market-specific approach; prioritize high-use vehicles and deploy critical charging infrastructure today while anticipating the transformation of mobility.