In a workshop convened by UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, 60 experts from car dealers and the automotive industry shared opportunities, challenges, and best practices for expanding the plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) retail market.

One of the major challenges facing mainstream adoption of plug-in electric vehicles is forging a stronger partnership and dialogue between manufacturers and retail car dealers. For dealers, Boardwalk Auto Mall Marketing Director Brendan Dolan has found success by recognizing that longstanding dealer practices for selling traditional automobiles don’t always apply to PEVs. Understanding what a modern PEV consumer wants is crucial to driving sales.

Dolan noted that because most early EV buyers are even better informed than conventional car buyers, they generally distrust car dealers. It’s important for dealers to match or exceed that level of competence, and sell on logic and value rather than stock sales pitches and dubious promises. “Customers want a different experience,” said Dolan. “People will know if you try to put on a show.”

Dolan argued that dealers should focus on finding staff that is open and motivated to learn the technology. Sales staff that cannot or will not adjust to the changes in the retail space may ultimately be too difficult to win over.

ITS-Davis Ph.D. candidate Eric Cahill argued that dealers could improve satisfaction scores by providing an ecosystem of ancillary services that enhance the PEV buying experience.

Borrowing a page from Apple’s playbook, some dealers have designated PEV “product geniuses” to better inform and support potential buyers on all of the available features offered by PEVs.

Cahill also noted that sales people at leading dealers drive PEVs on a day-to-day basis to experience what it is like to live with the vehicle. This “drive what you sell” approach allows dealers to better connect to and relate with customers by drawing from personal experiences.

Some dealers even offer a “try before you buy” program where prospective customers can spend a day or two with a plug-in before making a final decision. Cahill and many others, including ITS-Davis engineer Professor Andrew Burke, reiterated that it takes more than just a short test drive to understand what owning a PEV is like.

As for government incentives, dealers universally welcome them. But concern over the continued availability of rebates and HOV lane access keeps some dealers from evangelizing their benefits to consumers.

Overall, the panelists emphasized the need for a cultural shift from simply selling vehicles in the short term to a more pleasant experience in which sharing information about new technologies (like PEVs) is a natural part of the car buying experience.

For now, PEVs are not for everyone. Dealers play an essential role in helping customers realize whether a plug-in could meet their needs and fit their lifestyle. Automobile technology continues to advance in the industry. Meanwhile, customers expect more from dealers, and leading PEV dealers have demonstrated that they can meet these challenges by delivering a superior customer experience.

Photo (left to right): Heath Carney, Rob Louisell, Taz Harvey, Andrew McCargar, Brendan Dolan. Photo credit: Dorian Toy

Further Reading:

• PHEV Dealer Study
• Workshop resources

UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis) Ph.D. candidate Gabriel Lade conducts economic research on the costs of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) – an initiative to reduce the carbon intensity of fuel sold in California by 10 percent over the next decade– and other emissions-related policies.  Recently, his efforts gained the attention of one of the worldwide leaders in energy, Chevron, which is recognizing his accomplishments by honoring him with the 2013-2014 Chevron Fellowship.

The Fellowship award recognizes a student’s academic and research accomplishments in transportation and energy by providing greater flexibility for their research.

“I am very grateful to receive the Chevron Fellowship this year.  Chevron has been a longtime supporter of independent graduate student research at the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis, and I am glad I can be a part of that history,” said Lade. “The fellowship will certainly be put to good use in furthering my dissertation research studying economic issues with federal and state renewable fuel policy initiatives.”

In 2011, Lade joined ITS-Davis to pursue his Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics. He previously received his B.A. from The George Washington University in Economics and International Affairs and worked as a legislative correspondent for an Oklahoma congressman.

He later earned his M.A. in Economics at Rutgers University while simultaneously working as a lecturer in International Economics.  In 2013, Lade was a member of the UC Davis student team that won second place in the U.S. Association for Energy Economics Case Competition for working on financial strategies to accommodate the increase in energy demand from plug-in electric vehicles.

At UC Davis, Lade has worked closely with Associate Professor C.-Y. Cynthia Lin, who nominated him for the fellowship. Together they have co-authored two papers focused on maintaining LCFS compliance costs at reasonable levels.

The Chevron Fellowship is part of the company’s University Partnership Program, which supports universities around the country by providing the necessary funding to better develop the future of the energy business.

One of the world’s leading energy companies, Chevron selected Lade because of his focus on the relationship between California’s LCFS and cap-and-trade Programs, as well as his work designing renewable fuel and complementary carbon policies.

Photo: (From left to right) Jack Morris, Phil Heirigs, and Harry Sigworth, Jr. of Chevron with Fellowship recipient Gabriel Lade  and UC Davis Associate Professor C.-Y. Cynthia Lin.  Photo Credit: Adam Gottlieb

Congratulations to our recent Ph.D. and M.S. graduates!

These graduates have explored a variety of issues relating to sustainable transportation and energy efficiency. Some of their studies include energy use and efficiency for government buildings in Beijing, greenhouse gas emissions optimization modeling, environmental analysis of biofuel, and the use of alternative fuels for heavy duty trucks.

Our graduates hold key positions addressing transportation, fuels and energy, and the environment in government agencies, energy companies, automotive companies, non-profit organizations, academic, and more.

UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis) is looking for talented individuals interested in leading the future of sustainable transportation, energy efficiency.  ITS-Davis offers programs in Transportation Technology and Policy, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. For more information, click here.

Photo (Left to Right): Zhijun Liu, Micah Fuller, Matthew King, Zhengmao (Jack) Liu, Lin Zhu, Yu (Eileen) Liu,  Professors Joan Ogden,  John Harvey, and Alissa Kendall; Saleh Zakerinia, Ting Wang, Yu Pei, Xiaoxiao Zhang, Colin Murphy. Photo credit: Adam Gottlieb.

 

 

 Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis faculty, researchers and students will be active participants at the upcoming 37th Annual International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE) Conference in New York City.

The conference attendees will be led by Amy Myers Jaffe, UC Davis Executive Director of Energy and Sustainability and research scientist Sonia Yeh.  Jaffe will preside over a plenary session on “Transportation Developments,” and Yeh will serve as one of the session’s panelists. The session will examine government policies and market forces affecting efficient vehicles and alternative fuels—and the ultimate impact of both on the future of transportation.  A team of three UC Davis students, including Transportation Technology and Policy Ph.D. student Jeff Kessler, has been chosen to compete as one of three teams in the USAEE Case Competition. Kessler and his team will make a presentation on global improvements in energy intensity.

The focus of this year’s international IAEE conference is the relationship between economic growth and energy, an important issue as economies around the world struggle to reinvigorate and develop energy resources in sensible, sustainable ways. The conference is attracting top energy executives, academics, practitioners, and policy-makers from around the world.  The conference runs from June 15-18.

For more information, click here.

By Alston Lim • UC Davis 2014

During an Air Resources Board seminar on May 1, ITS-Davis researchers Sonia Yeh and Christopher Yang discussed how their energy optimization model is critical to understanding the ways California can meet its 2050 greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets.

The focus of their model demonstrates many optimized pathways to transform California’s energy system to a low-carbon future, from energy supply (energy resources electricity generation, and fuel production and infrastructure) to end use technologies such as cars and appliances in buildings, transportation, industrial and agriculture sectors.

According to Yeh and Yang, results from the project, “Modeling Optimal Transition Pathways to a Low Carbon Economy in California“, showed that major energy transformations are needed but that achieving the 80 percent reduction goal for California is possible at reasonable average carbon reduction cost (-$75 to $124/tonne CO2 discounted cost) relative to the baseline scenario, which is already on its way to meet the 2020 GHG reduction target that the State already committed to. Availability of low-carbon resources such as nuclear power, technology to capture and sequester carbon from power plants and bio-refiners, increased availability of biomass/biofuels and wind and solar generation, and demand reduction all serve to lower the mitigation costs.

Yeh recently received the 2014 UC Davis Academic Federation Award for Excellence in Research, which recognizes her recent accomplishments in publishing, funding, and societal impact that further the research mission of the university. The award represents the highest research award on the UC Davis campus. Yang is an expert on infrastructure modeling of electricity and hydrogen supply and has published many widely cited articles on low-carbon transportation by 2050.

To view the seminar presentation, click here

To view videos of the seminar presentation, click here

 

Honda, in collaboration with UC Davis, has unveiled one of the most advanced, zero net energy smart homes in West Village on the UC Davis campus.

Working with the Western Cooling Efficiency Center, the Energy Efficiency Center, and the California Lighting Technology Center, Honda partnered with UC Davis research to showcase energy efficient technology in this home of the near future.

The March 25 grand opening of  the Honda Smart Home allowed the public and the media to see the home and learn about sustainable design, green building concepts, advanced energy technology, and efficient landscaping.

UC Davis Provost and Vice Chancellor Ralph Hexter, Honda Vice President Steve Center, and Honda Smart Home Project Manager Michael Koenig spoke at the event before “digitally” cutting the ribbon to officially inaugurate the home.  Additionally, the California Lighting and Technology Center’s Michael Siminovitch and Western Cooling Efficiency Center’s Jonathan Woolley provided excellent commentary on the energy efficient features of the nearly 2,000 square foot home to guests and media alike.

The Honda Smart Home will generate enough energy for daily living, electric vehicle charging, and, in collaboration with PG&E, provide power back to the grid on demand. Built with energy efficient design in mind, the Honda Smart Home will use less than half the energy of a similarly-sized home in the Davis region.

Print Media
• New York Times: Car Companies Take Expertise in Battery Power Beyond the Garage (March 25)
• Davis Enterprise: House of the (near) future from Honda, UCD (March 26)
• Sacramento Business Journal: Honda ‘house of the near future’ unveiled at UC Davis (March 26)
• Green Car Reports: Honda Opens Demonstration Smart Home, With Fit EV Electric Car in Garage (March 26)

Broadcast Media
• Channel 3 (KCRA): Solar-powered home fuels car (March 25)
• Channel 40 (KTXL): ‘Smart Home’ Built on UC Davis Campus (March 25)
• Capital Public Radio (KXJZ): Will Your Next House Produce More Energy Than It Consumes? (March 25)

Bloggers
• Christian Science Monitor: Honda unveils model house built to support electric car (March 26)
• Asahi Shimbun newspaper: Honda smart home plugs into hopes for zero carbon living, mobility (March 26)
• Phys.org: Honda smart home offers vision for zero carbon living (March 26)
• Jalopnik: This Is The Zero Carbon House That Honda Built (March 25)

Campus Promotion
• UC Davis Dateline: Honda showcases smart way to live, drive (March 25)
• UC Davis News Release: Honda Smart Home at UC Davis West Village offers vision for zero carbon living (March 25)

By Alston Lim • UC Davis 2014

Three UC Davis students were honored at the annual WTS-Sacramento Awards and Scholarship Dinner on Jan. 29, an event that recognizes women for their leadership and achievements in the transportation industry.

Alicia Halpern (second to left), Natalie Popovich (center) and Melissa Gjerde (right) each received a scholarship that celebrates the contributions each woman made to the study of transportation.

Popovich, a Transportation Technology and Policy (TTP) master’s student, received the 2013 Helene M. Overly Memorial Graduate Scholarship. The award honors women pursuing graduate studies in transportation and encourages them to further pursue a career in transportation.

Popovich studies the intersection of behavioral economics and transportation planning and is particularly interested in government decision-making about transportation infrastructure projects. Her adviser is professor Susan Handy.

Popovich said she is honored to receive the WTS recognition.

“This scholarship reinforced the notion to me that if you do work that you believe in, chances are other people also believe in it. The support of this scholarship is a constant reminder to pursue changes in the transportation sector that benefit those who don’t have the strongest voice,” said Popovich.

“This scholarship will give me the freedom to pursue personal research interests over the summer and allow me to travel to conferences and present my research to a broader audience.”

Popovich works for the City of Davis as an Active Transportation Program Specialist where she helps organize and edit the city’s new Beyond Platinum Bicycle Action Plan. She also manages the city’s Bicycle Friendly Business Program, through which she explained, “local businesses can apply for national recognition for their efforts in encouraging employees and patrons to bike to work and shop.”

Halpern, an undergraduate senior at UC Davis majoring in Environmental Policy Analysis & Planning, was the recipient of the 2013 Sharon D. Banks Memorial Undergraduate Scholarship, which awards women pursuing undergraduate studies in transportation. Halpern works as a student research aide at the UC Davis Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and the Economy, where she is interested in sustainable agriculture, ecosystem conservation, alternative transportation and community development.

Gjerde, also a student researcher at the UC Davis Policy Institute, received the 2013 Bimla G. Rhinehart Leadership Scholarship for demonstrating leadership skills, ability and interest in her undergraduate studies in transportation. She is a third-year Environmental Policy Analysis & Planning student with an emphasis in City and Regional Planning. She is interested in pursuing a career in regional transportation planning and hopes to someday promote more mixed use and multimodal transportation design in California.

Photo: Scholarship recipients Alicia Halpern (second to left), Natalie Popovich (center) and Melissa Gjerde (right) attend the 2013 annual WTS-Sacramento Awards and Scholarship Dinner with UC Davis professor of Environmental Science and Policy Susan Handy (left).  Photo Credit: Kyle Gayman, 2014

ITS-Davis Director Dan Sperling recounted the history of electric vehicle policy and offered a vision for the future in his keynote presentation to the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) 2014 Hybrid & Electric Vehicle Technologies Symposium on February 11. The symposium highlights the latest advances and developments in electric vehicle technologies and addresses the business decisions around technology development and implementation.

In his presentation, “Potholes and Promises on the Path to Vehicle Electrification,” Sperling began by stating, contrary to popular belief, the world is not running out of oil. The new energy revolution with unconventional oil and shale gas means that oil will likely be plentiful and relatively cheap for the foreseeable future. But that oil needs to stay in the ground if we want to decarbonize our economy and slow climate change. Climate change – not oil scarcity – increasingly will be the motivator for continued advancement of alternative fuels. The fuels of the future will likely include biofuels, hydrogen and electricity, he said.

Progress has been slow – and frustrating.

“So far we’re following a fuel du jour phenomenon, where politicians and the media jump from one alt fuel to another. They desire a single silver bullet solution. They hype the fuel du jour and are always disappointed,” he told the audience of industry leaders.

“If we believe that plug-in and fuel cell vehicles are necessary for large reductions in greenhouse gases, then we need policies and regulations that go beyond the national 54 mpg by 2025 requirement, because even it will not be enough to motivate large investments in zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) technologies,” said Sperling. Automakers are finding that it is cheaper in the near term to focus on incremental enhancements of conventional vehicles, including greater use of lightweight materials, enhanced combustion techniques, more efficient transmissions and so on. Those improvements are desirable, but California and eight other states have determined that it is important to accelerate investments in ZEV technology. They have adopted a ZEV Program, which provides a foundation for the introduction of plug-in and fuel cell cars, Sperling noted. Complementary policies, such as California’s cap-and-trade program, Low Carbon Fuel Standard and incentives for ZEVs and other alternative fuel vehicles are also key.

What will it cost society to transform our transportation system? The International Energy Agency and National Academies, as well as UC Davis NextSTEPS researchers Joan Ogden and Lew Fulton have arrived at similar findings. They estimate an investment ranging roughly from $50 billion to $200 billion – to cover the additional costs of plug-in electric and fuel cell cars and their charging and hydrogen fuel infrastructure – is needed for these alternatives to become competitive with petroleum-fueled vehicles. The break-even point could be before 2030 if production ramped up quickly.

Is this a lot of money or a little? Considering the United States will spend an estimated $15 trillion on vehicles and fuels between now and 2030, the investment is a small fraction, less than 1 percent of the expenditures, Sperling explained. These additional costs will need to be covered by some mix of industry, consumers and taxpayers. Taking into account fuel savings, the net benefits of this transition are likely to be strongly positive after 2030; the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates a net $50 trillion in global savings from vehicles, fuels and infrastructure through 2050 in its two-degree scenario.

In closing, Sperling addressed future fuels for heavy-duty trucks, suggesting they would eventually be powered by biofuels and fuel cells.

Photo: Daniel Sperling addresses the SAE 2014 Hybrid & Electric Vehicle Technologies Symposium on Feb. 11.  Courtesy photo.

The UC Davis Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and the Economy and the Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways (NextSTEPS) program of the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis) hosted a forum in December 2013 as part of the California Climate Policy Modeling (CCPM) project.

Six of the models presented at the forum included “deep GHG reduction scenarios” that achieved either a reduction of 80% in GHG emissions by 2050 or cumulatively similar emission reductions.  These scenarios showed the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 8-52% below 1990 levels by 2030 through a combination of strategies that include energy efficiency, renewable energy and low-carbon transportation solutions.

View the full technical brief here