Well-to-wheel driving cycle simulations for freight transportation: Battery and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles

This work presents a comparison of battery and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles for road freight transportation. The methodology is the Well-to-Wheel analysis applied to standard driving cycles simulation in order to evaluate the complete energy and environmental balances. The two categories of electric vehicles considered in the work can be powered either by electricity coming from the grid (comparing current grid and long-term full renewable scenarios) or by hydrogen generated from a range of possible pathways (including centralized or distributed production from either fossil fuels or renewables and storage/transport in gaseous or liquid form). Their payload (kg) and specific energy consumption (Wh/kg/km) is calculated vs. the necessity to sustain a given driving cycle (assuming the EPA HUDDS or the ETC cycle) as a function of the driving range. Results show that both electric and fuel cell vehicles are competitive for the application in terms of energy consumption and emissions. Advantages for battery vehicles are present when fed by electricity from local RES, but with the disadvantage of a significant reduction in payload, a drawback for successful commercial applications.