Abstract:

This paper examines the economic and environmental co-benefits of Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G)  services in shared autonomous electric vehicles (SAEV) fleets, using results from operational simulations in a mid-size city (Ann Arbor, MI). The authors present a life-cycle assessment framework by considering SAEV fleets with 100-mile short-range (SAEV100) and 250-mile long-range (SAEV250) powertrain vehicles and compare the trade-offs of higher vehicle-mile-traveled (VMT) and additional infrastructure requiem nets in the electrified fleet with SAV counterpart. Incorporating a 30-year timeframe, we show that from an economic point of view, the operating cost of the SAEV fleet is 3.4%-8.4% higher than the SAV fleet. However, providing V2G service can reduce the cost of the SAEV250 fleet by 19.6% compared to the SAV fleet by generating revenue, thus making it economically feasible to replace the SAV fleet. The authors find that, on average, V2G service yields a revenue of $2,272 per vehicle annually while saving 66.5 tons of GHG emissions per vehicle per year. The authors also conduct a thorough sensitivity analysis to quantify the uncertainty of results from key parameters. Finally, they highlight the major opportunities for maximizing the environmental and economic performance of SAEV fleets under the provision of V2G services over the long term.