Electric vehicle Carbon footprint reduction via intelligent charging strategies

In recent years, electric vehicles (EVs) are seen as an effective solution to the arising environmental and sustainability concerns related to the transportation sector. As opposed to conventional vehicles, EVs do not entail tailpipe emission of CO2 and other ambient air pollutants and require lower operational cost. However, the benefits that EVs can bring highly depend on their charging strategy. Moreover, the ever-increasing deployment of EVs on a global scale, and their uncontrolled charging (currently predominant) requirements, can cause significant burden for national grids and local distribution networks. The solutions EV could bring depend on the adopted charging strategies, i.e. dump charging, smart charging or V2G. This paper compares various EV charging strategies at the UK national level in perspective to 2030 and 2040 targets. This study clearly shows the benefits EVs could bring if their charging is intelligently controlled, resulting in a more positive impact on electricity distribution grids, a higher integration of renewable energy sources (RES) and lower CO2 emissions.