Effects of temperature on economic attractiveness and airborne emissions' external costs of large battery electric and diesel delivery vans

Abstract

Past studies have shown that public support for battery electric (BEV) vans is justified by their emission external cost savings compared to their diesel equivalent. This study builds on this previous work and focuses on temperature effects on costs and energy use of large BEV and diesel vans. The authors find that temperature effect has relatively small private costs, when compared to the overall operational costs. However, it could reduce large BEV vans’ average range by up to 20% in cold cities. Pre-heating the vans could mitigate these negative effects by 5-10%, 90-95% and 100% for 23.4, 46.8 and 70.2 kWh large BEV vans, respectively. Hence, policy makers should adopt different strategies according to city temperature profiles, prioritiz-ing subsidies to charging stations in cold cities.