Driving and charging patterns of electric vehicles for energy usage

This paper presents findings from the Western Australian Electric Vehicle Trial (2010-2012) and the ongoing Electric vehicle (EV) charging research network in Perth. The University of Western Australia is collecting the data from eleven locally converted EVs and 23 charging stations. The data confirms most charging is conducted at business and home locations (55%), while charging stations were only used for 33% of charging events. The EV charging power over time-of-day and aggregated over all charging stations closely resembles a solar PV curve, which means that EV charging stations can ideally be offset by solar PV. Another important finding is that EVs spend significantly more time at a charging station than what is technically required for the charging process. Also on average, EVs have more than 50% battery charge remaining when they plug in. This tells us parking spaces are in higher demand than Level-2 charging facilities.