Are more charging piles imperative to future electrified transportation system?

Scholars and practitioners believe that the large-scale deployment of charging piles is imperative to our future electric transportation systems. Major economies ambitiously install charging pile networks, with massive construction spending, maintenance costs, and urban space occupation. However, recent developments in technology may significantly reduce the necessary charging capacity required by the system. This paper develops a linear programming model to characterize the effects of likely scenarios where vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) charging is available via vehicle modularization or wireless charging. Specifically, we consider scenarios in which vehicles can transmit energy to each other (coordinated by a central platform) while traveling closely on the same road. We first estimate the number of charging piles needed for completing the travel plan of 73 cars from data, assuming a battery capacity of 400 km’s range and no V2V charging. Our results show that once V2V charging technologies with an efficiency of 50% are available, more than 2/3 of the charging piles investment would be wasted. Additionally, if the efficiency of V2V charging increases to 75%, we can easily reduce the battery capacity of vehicles to 200 km, which will reduce production costs and improve energy efficiency. These results may reveal us an alternative pathway towards transportation electrification.