Alternative Passenger Cars for the Australian Market: A Cost–Benefit Analysis

Abstract

Petrol or diesel powered cars (henceforth referred as conventional vehicles (CV)) have long been in existence, and currently, 75% of cars in Australia belong to this category. Hybrids (HEVs), i.e. a vehicle with an electric drive system and an internal combustion engine running on either petrol or diesel have gained significant market share in recent years. While hybrids are regularly presented as “greener alternatives”, their competitive edge is largely dependent on existing market conditions (gasoline prices, electricity prices, purchase price and maintenance costs) and the usage (commuting distances). A new breed of cars, i.e. fully electric vehicles (EVs), is becoming increasingly popular for city commuters and expected to feature prominently in “Smart Cities” of the future. This study aims to evaluate the performance of electric vehicles (EVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and conventional vehicles (CVs) based on three major considerations: average gasoline consumption per day, average GHG emissions in kg-CO₂ equivalent (kg-CO₂-eq) per day and equivalent annualized cost (EAC), for a typical Australian scenario. Each of the three objectives are assessed across a range of gasoline prices, electricity tariffs and commuting distances. Four vehicles have been considered in this study (The models for analysis have been developed based on available open source data with simplifications and assumptions.): two EVs (Nissan LEAF and a BMW i3), one HEV (Toyota Prius) and one CV (Hyundai i30). For a typical city commute of 50 km/day, the average gasoline consumption varies between 0 to 2.30 litre per day, average GHG emission varies between 8.25 to 12.57 kg-CO₂ equivalent per day, and equivalent annualized cost (EAC) varies between 9.90 to 38.79 AUD per day. With such a variation, the choice of one vehicle over another is largely dependent on user preferences. The chapter also presents an approach to customize EVs i.e. effectively develop EV or HEVs to be attractive to a particular market segment.