Assessing Powertrain Technology Performance and Cost Signposts for Electrified Heavy Duty Commercial Freight Vehicles

Adoption of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) or battery electric vehicles (BEV) in heavy-duty (HD) commercial freight transportation is hampered by difficult technoeconomic obstacles. To enable widespread deployment of electrified powertrains, fleet and operational logistics need high uptime and parity with diesel system productivity/total cost of ownership (TCO), while meeting safety compliance. Due to a mix of comparatively high powerplant and energy storage costs, high energy costs (more so for FCEV), greater weight (more so for BEV), slow refueling / recharging durations, and limited supporting infrastructure, FCEV and BEV powertrains have not seen significant uptake in the HD freight transport market. The use of dynamic wireless power transfer (DWPT) systems, consisting of inductive electrical coils on the vehicle and power source transmitting coils embedded in the roadways, may address several of these challenges. An appropriately designed BEV, will absorb energy at highway speeds from these transmitting coils in the road, providing electrical energy to sustain its mission. This has the potential to reduce the onboard energy storage requirements for BEV while enabling significantly longer missions. While still contingent on considerable infrastructure development, this technology has the potential to disrupt the zero emission HD freight transport system by not only lowering the overall total cost of ownership and increasing asset uptime, but also reducing the use of rare earth minerals required to support the deployment of these vehicle systems. This paper presents a study of four use cases (Drayage, Short Haul, Regional Haul, and Long Haul) of HD vehicles comparing the diesel incumbent powertrain against FCEV, BEV with depot charging, and BEV with DWPT charging. By considering the interplay of several technoeconomic factors associated with each of these powertrain options and further considering real world vehicle weight and road variations, a systematic study is conducted to show critical signposts for both single and multi-parameter technology viability. This study also assesses the sensitivity of each factor to the overall TCO changes thus identifying critical areas of further research and development. Finally, by considering the four use cases together a preliminary strategy to introduce DWPT in freight roadway networks is stipulated. Future works will address the specific characteristics and develop this strategy more holistically based on freight volume, road conditions, and other key development factors.