Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer: Potential Impact on Plug-in Electric Vehicle Adoption

This study attempts to establish a quantitative linkage between deployment of dynamic wireless power transfer (DWPT) and the market adoption of plug-in electric vehicles (PEV). This linkage can be useful for analyzing the societal benefits of DWPT and justifying investments in its research, development, demonstration and deployment. Spatial relationships between charging opportunity and DWPT availability are estimated for four metropolitan areas. The consumer value of DWPT is formulated as a function of key DWPT deployment parameters and then integrated into an existing validated consumer choice model, where sales of PEVs are endogenous. Results indicate significant impacts on PEV sales of DWPT deployment, even only at 0.5% of road length by 2050. Significant impact heterogeneity is observed. Larger impacts appear to be on battery electric vehicles (BEV) as opposed to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), on short-range BEVs as opposed to long-range ones, and on consumers with charging challenges, such as consumers without adequate home or workplace charging and consumers with high driving intensity. DWPT can also abruptly expand the PEV consumer base when the DWPT availability becomes high enough (around 0.8%) and DWPT becomes a viable alternative to home or workplace chargers for consumers with neither.