Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - STEVE (Smart-Taylored L-category Electric Vehicle demonstration in hEtherogeneous urbanuse-cases)

Teaser

Growing urbanization, congestion and air pollution in combination with the need for mobility are major challenges of today’s urban areas. The demand for mobility is changing with and determined by developments arising from intricate interactions of societal, political...

Summary

Growing urbanization, congestion and air pollution in combination with the need for mobility are major challenges of today’s urban areas.
The demand for mobility is changing with and determined by developments arising from intricate interactions of societal, political, technological, environmental, legal and economic trends.
A successful integration of new mobility solutions, such as electrified L-category vehicles (EL-Vs), requires a clear understanding and demonstration of the individual consumer benefits.
Smaller, lighter and more specialized than other vehicles, EL-Vs have the potential to save users’ time, energy consumption and space required for maneuvering and parking, in a co-modal vehicle sharing framework. However, they still represent a niche market, mainly due to cost, limited comfort, and lack of public information and direct user experience.
A significant market penetration of EL-Vs would radically change the composition of urban traffic but requires a mind-shift among users/customers – which, can only be successfully achieved if the benefits for the individual user of EL-Vs are clear and evident.
STEVE proposes a human-centric vision for EL-V-based mobility, using low-cost, connected quadricycles, for the demonstration of urban electro-Mobility-as-a-Service (eMaaS), with the following four objectives:
• Detailed market analysis on EL-Vs and related services
• Implementation of new energy-efficiency and customer-oriented services for EL-Vs, based on a gamification approach rewarding the virtuous behaviours of the users
• Demonstration of the wide range of EL-V typologies and services
• Analysis of the operation of EL-Vs in real scenarios and policy recommendations

Work performed

- Detailed market analysis on EL-Vs and related services (Objective 1)
STEVE’s market analysis (tailored for the four demo cities) has put the people (customers, users) in the center and listened to their voices. With focus on EL-Vs, e-bikes, e-scooter and related services (e.g. car-sharing, gamification or co-modality services and preferences), key aspects for the successful penetration in the market are, amongst the others, vehicle cost, passive/active safety, powertrain technology, purchase incentives, low emission zone/lane, privileged parking and charging. Consequently the proper combination of technologies, design for manufacturability, innovative services and policy measures could positively influence the market penetration of EL-Vs

- Implementation of new energy-efficiency and customer-oriented services for EL-Vs, based on a gamification approach (Objective 2)
Route planning based on energy-efficiency criteria as well as energy-efficient driving assistance system incorporated in the driver support HMI have been developed by the partners. The experimental phase has been set up by defining the first functionalities like “eco-driving”, driver monitoring behavior and the so-called “gamification” approach with competition elements resulting in increased awareness about energy efficient routes typical of daily commute trips through EL-Vs.

- Demonstration of the wide range of EL-V typologies and services (Objective 3)
The configurable vehicle architecture enables the use of the EL-Vs for both passenger and e.g last mile delivery in urban areas. The vehicles are providing connectivity to the cloud, supporting the experimental activity in realistic urban conditions. Generated data is made available by the secure gateway, collected by the Telematic Service Provider (TSP) system, complemented with additional data (e.g., GPS positions, driving style, accident notifications, etc.), and sent to the TSP Control Centre over the public mobile network single vehicle or fleet-management.

- Analysis of the operation of EL-Vs in real scenarios and policy recommendations (Objective 4)
The operation of EL-Vs in real scenarios takes into account that the user targets of for each city and the typical destinations are different. Available charging stations, parking of the EL-Vs and management of the vehicles (maintenance, insurance) has been evaluated. All cities have defined the various activities for the demonstration phase and defined routes, infrastructure and user groups. The user’s experience will be evaluated by dedicated surveys on the pilot-drive tests across the cities and assessed by selected KPIs. The experimental activity has just started in two cities, Torino and Venaria. The Municipialities are commited to actively support for the policy recommendations.

Final results

In WP1 the main achievement beyond the state-of-the-art is the analysis of the results of the STEVE survey. The identikit generated, helped identify the typical STEVE users, with clear indications with respect to the technologies and services that are proposed in the project.
The prototypes of the telematic devices have been developed (WP2), released and integrated in the prototype vehicles. The same applies for the main functionalities of the TSPCC (Telematic Service Provider Control Center) platform where the data gathered during each trip are stored, processed and made available via web services to the external service providers. Defining the gamification scenarios will allow the adoption of shared e-mobility and related HMI (human-machine-interface) for incentives beyond state-of the art based on the STEVE on-board-unit as interface with external services and the Time-of-Flight camera for safety and convenience applications.
The fully functional JAC EL-V quadricycles with the PCU and the in-wheel motor are showing promising results for optimal energy consumption with a potential 20% energy reduction (simulated in WP3). The dual inverter is in the validation phase against state-of-the art technologies. Routes and infrastructure for the demonstrations are ready for start in WP4. The eMAAS (electro mobility as a service) approach works on beyond state-of the art user feedback to evaluate personal oppinions about the service (WP5). Policy recommendations will follow through WP6 towards the end of the second period.
Impact
STEVE has gathered information through a set of specific user questionnaires to evaluate the customer preferences to build up mobility services by usage of different types of e-vehicles (EL-V quadricycles from JAC, e-bikes). The pilot fleet has been set up to evaluate the possibilities to speed-up the penetrations of EL-Vs into the market. Significant engineering work (in-wheel drive) has been made to work on the next generation of EL-Vs. Charging infrastructure has been set up at the Demo cities. For the gamification approach and surveillance aspects through ICT, TOF cameras have been installed and the HMI is ready to be integrated to provide data on real driving conditions useful to design policy measures. The first iteration of the demos is ready to be started to elaborate real time data on routes and usage, environmental impact and social acceptance. The impact on policy makers will be evaluated in the second half of the project – based on the data to be collected.
Liasing with the ECSEL Mobility.e Lighthouse initiative and ECAS2030 (Electric Connected Automated Cars invented for the 2030 Consumer) will boost the European impact.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.steve-project.eu.