Selected Results from a Large-Scale Field Operational Test with Electric Vehicles in Germany and France

In this paper we present results from a large-scale field operational test with electric vehicles (EVs) in the French-German border region. The vehicle fleet consists of 100+ EVs from four different European car manufacturers. The EVs have been allocated to commercial users and public authorities for daily use as business cars, mostly within a small fleet. The majority of the EVs has been equipped with data logging devices to monitor technical conditions of the car and their mobility. In addition a share of approximately 40 fleet vehicles has also been equipped with smartphones as measurement devices to log GPS profiles of the trips and complementary mobility data that can be entered manually. Additional data consists of the trip purpose, the number of passengers, the payload and other values that are hard or impossible to measure with a sensor. Data of the fleet has been collected for more than 18 months to get a clear insight in the usage of the EVs. The data base that this analysis is founded on consists of information of more than 130,000 full-electric trips. The goal of the data analysis is to get a clear insight in all characteristics of mobility. A special attention is paid at the comparison between the sub-fleets in France and Germany. For that purpose the data of one EV type that has been used in large number in both countries is used for a comparing analysis. By the reduction on one EV type distortive factors like different ranges or top speeds are eliminated. In the course of the analysis the data from the trips like distances, durations and speed profiles are analysed as well as the state of charge of the battery and the charging behaviour. We show significant differences in some aspects like trip lengths and speed profiles whereas other aspects like the charging behaviour are not influenced by national idiosyncrasies.