Page - 88 - in Emerging Technologies for Electric and Hybrid Vehicles

Energies 2016,9, 86 way. Section6providesanoverviewofotherrelatedemerging issues, suchas lifecyclecostanalysis andtheuseofEVs inruralareasandtoconfrontnaturaldisasters. Finally,Section7summarizes the maincontributionsof thispaper. 2. Environmental IssuesRelatedto theUseofElectricVehicles (EVs) 2.1. EnvironmentalAspects ofTransportation Transportationactivities involve thesideeffects (externalities)ofnoisepollution,airpollution, and traffic congestion,whichcurrent cityplanningstrategieshardly take intoaccount. Given that the transport sector accounted formore thana25%ofworldenergyconsumption, andproducing energyincreasesaircontamination, theseexternalitiesmustbeconsideredtoensure thesustainable growth of transportationworldwide [7]. A complete description of the problem of externalities in transportationwould involve the introductionof the following sources of external costs: noise, air pollution, infrastructurewear, visual intrusion, flow congestion, traffic accidents, and so on. Nonetheless, themainenvironmental studiesareperformedon thenoiseandairpollutioncaused by transportation, due to the fact that they are verywell-known externalities. Some reports and studieshave tried toassess theeconomic impactandpricingof theseexternalities inEurope,but their resultshavenotbeenconclusivesofar. Ineffect, there isagreatdivergence in thecostestimationof externalities [8].AccordingtoKorzhenevychetal. [9],externalcostsof transportationactivitiesaccount forabout8.5%of theGDPinregionssuchas theEuropeanUnion. Theseactivities representoneof the largest sourcesofCO2emissions,andthere isastrong interest inmitigatingtheireffects. Nowadays, there is a general agreement on the need to consider these negative externalities whenformulating transportationpoliciesandlogistic strategies. For instance, theEuropeanUnion hasdevelopedan infrastructure-use taxation systembasedon the “user andpolluter pays” tenet. Inextraordinarycases involving infrastructures inmountainousareas, thedirectivessuggestedthe rise of toll charges. Someof thesedirectiveshighlight thatparticular attention shouldbedevoted tomountainous regions, suchas theAlpsor thePyrenees,with the consequent apportionment of EuropeanUniontaxpayers’moneytoitsrelatedprojects. Thesuitablepricingofall theaforementioned externalities isessential for thesuccessofanyconsiderationofadequatepayments in transportation policies.Asstatedbefore, twomain typesof traffic-relatedenvironmentalpollutionareconsidered: air pollutionandnoisepollution. Thepreviousdiscussionabout the importanceofcontrollingdifferent typesofcontaminatingemissionsexplainstheneedforsearchingnewtechnologies thatallowreducing theenvironmental impactof freight transportationactivities. In thissense, the increasinguseofEVs inhybridfleets constitutes a fundamental step in this direction [10]. Somebasic figureswill help tounderstand thepotential contributionofEVs inpromoting sustainabilityof freight-distribution operations: according to Figliozzi [11], while a diesel van delivering goods in a “standard” city releasesabout1.0375kgCO2/mile,usinganEVinsteadwouldproduce justabout0.01915kgCO2/mile (notice that thisnumbercorresponds to theestimatedemissionsproducedbythesourceofelectrical powernecessary toruntheEV). Inotherwords,adieselvan(ICEV)coveringamileproducesabout 54 times theCO2 emissions releasedbyanEVtodo the samedistributionactivity. Of course, this hugeadvantagehas tobeconsideredalongwith theassociateddisadvantages, e.g., limitedautonomy of theEVs, reductionof the loadtocarrypermile, etc.Further, therearedifferentalternatives to the useof“pure”or“standard”EVs,amongthemhydraulichybridEVs[12]aswellashydrogen-based EVs[13],whichwouldfurtherreduceCO2emissions. Fromthissimpleexample, it seemsclear that thecontributionofEVstoenvironmental sustainabilitycanbesignificant. 2.2. Environmental ImpactofDeliveringGoods inUrbanAreas Duringthe lastdecades,a largepercentageof theworld’spopulationhasmovedintocities [14]. Therefore,allL&Tissuesrelatedtoprocurementandsupplymanagementofcitiesarecritical. City managers try to identifynewstrategies to increase thequalityof lifeof theircitizenswhilemaintaining 88