Electricity as an Energy Carrier in Transport: Cost and Efficiency Comparison of Different Pathways

Paper in proceeding, 2018

This study includes a techno-economic assessment of different pathways of using electricity in passenger cars and short sea ships, with a special focus on electrofuels (i.e.fuels produced from electricity, water and CO2) and electric road systems (ERS). For passenger cars electro-diesel is shown to be cost-competitive compare to battery electric vehicles with larger batteries (BEV50kWh) and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCEV), assuming optimistic cost for the electrolyser. ERS is shown to reduce the vehicle cost substantially compare to BEV50kWh and FCEV, but depend on a new large scale infrastructure. For ships it is shown that battery electric vessels with a relatively small battery has the lowest cost. Electro-diesel and hydrogen can compete with the battery options only when ships operate few days per year.