I-Corps: Electric Fleet Management

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the ability to provide electric vehicle data prior to their deployment. Thus, there are a multitude of customer segments that can be addressed. These segments include: Electric vehicle fleet resellers and manufacturers that want to sell electric vehicles to fleets; Fleet managers that want to intelligently plan this transition; Fleet software companies that want to electric vehicle analysis in their offerings; Utility companies that need to understand what infrastructure upgrade requirements; Charging station providers and government agencies that want to intelligently place their charging stations; and insurance agencies that want to scope new electric vehicle policies. Within each of the segments, this project can span across all vehicle types, such as drones, and all power options, such as hydrogen, propane and electric. The fleet software market is currently $18.2 Billion and expected to grow to $67.4 Billion by 2029. Within the US, it’s currently $7.16 Billion and commercial electric vehicles currently account for 2% of the market; however, this is expected to significantly increase over the next decade. By providing simulated electric vehicle data, this project will help customers make informed decisions on their sustainable transition and avoid disrupting their services. This I-Corps project is based on the development of software that allows fleets and utilities to simulate the performance of different electric vehicles for their use case and analyze their tradeoffs; determine charging infrastructure requirements; determine the battery life cycle throughout their operation; forecast the power load of charging stations; and explore the associated economics all within a digital environment. This tool provides an inexpensive opportunity to de-risk the electrification transition and facilitate the green transportation revolution. This patented technology works by integrating vehicle power dynamics, battery dynamics and real-world data from the location to provide realistic predictions on the performance of the vehicles and the subsequent infrastructure requirements. The route of each vehicle is determined using the customer’s telematics data or can be generated using any routing algorithm. The results from each of the vehicles are then gathered and used to provide both individual vehicle and fleet performance metrics for design decisions. The software’s modularity allows it to handle multiple types of vehicles, including aircraft, and any type of power source, including hydrogen. Therefore, mixed fleets can seamlessly integrate into the software, and it can provide additional insights to the performance and services such as climate impact reports. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.