// komDRIVE: The use of electric vehicles for light duty transportation

The komDRIVE project, successfully completed at the end of last year, dealt with the electrification potential of commercial vehicle fleets in commercial transportation. The project focused on finding the conditions under which the use of electric vehicles in light duty transportation is technically, environmentally and economically advantageous, and on analysing synergistic effects with the electricity industry.

By controlling the charging time and power and, if necessary, feeding energy back, vehicle batteries can deliver positive and negative power to the grid. Additional degrees of freedom can result for the economic viability of vehicle batteries by coupling electric vehicle fleets to the grid. The associated impact on battery life was examined at ZSW on a test and model base by comparing and testing load profiles from four different usage scenarios on battery modules, and then analysing the resulting ageing behavior.

The application cases studied include uncontrolled and controlled loading (L1 and L2, see fig.) as well as the additional participation of distributed, aggregated battery storage systems of vehicle fleets in the day-ahead and balancing power markets (L3 and L4, see fig.). Interestingly, it can be noted that the batteries studied exhibited a very similar ageing behaviour over time in all scenarios (see fig. below left). It was also shown that the batteries, with approximately the same level of ageing, achieve a significantly increased energy throughput for participation in the electricity market or the provision of ancillary services. The requirement is that additional mechanisms of ageing, especially at low temperatures, are avoided.