The present study aims to determine the key antecedents that affect consumers' electric vehicle (EV) purchasing behavior. In this context, the study expanded the existing framework of TPB (attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control) by incorporating four new variables (product attributes, cognitive status, monetary incentive policies, and nonmonetary incentive policies). At this point, the study is of great importance in terms of understanding consumers' perspectives on EV purchasing behavior and to help policymakers, businesses, and marketers support sustainable production and (...) consumption by creating effective strategies. In addition, this study conducted in Türkiye, which shares similar consumption behaviors with Middle Eastern, Asian, and European societies, provides valuable insights for a rapid transition to the adoption of EVs. In the study, data were collected from 390 respondents with the survey method and the collected data were analyzed using Smart PLS 4.0 and SPSS 26 statistical software. The findings showed that only attitude together with cognitive status, product attributes, and monetary incentives policy contribute to EV purchasing behavior. In light of these findings, it can be argued that there is a need to increase efforts to develop more positive consumer attitudes toward EVs, to enhance their cognitive status, and to promote product attributes to encourage the widespread adoption of EVs. At the same time, monetary incentives policies are an important element in the adoption of EVs and therefore policymakers need to make great efforts. (shrink)

This study focuses on implementing electric vehicles (EVs) in developing countries where energy production is mainly based on fossil fuels. Although for these countries the environmental short-run benefits of the EVs cannot offset the short-run costs, it may still be the best option to implement the EVs as soon as possible. Hence, it is necessary to evaluate the alternatives to introducing EVs to the market due to the environmental concerns that created an opportunity for some developing countries to catch (...) up with the international competition. Therefore, we develop a case scenario to explore the decision-making process in implementing the EVs with three alter natives and twelve criteria. We solve the decision-making problem by using Type-2 neutrosophic numbers (T2NNs) based on the RAFSI (Ranking of Alternatives through Functional mapping of criterion sub-intervals into a Single Interval) method. The proposed model combines the advantages of the RAFSI technique, and it applies T2NNs to address the uncertainties. The results show that the alternatives that may suspend the implementation of the EVs are inferior. Direct implementation of EVs is prioritized. The policy implications of the results are discussed in the study. (shrink)

Constructivist technology studies have often cast government as one “social group” among many, reflecting a liberal pluralist view of politics. This article argues, in contrast, that due to the conceptions of citizenship conveyed by policy designs, governments have a special role to play in the shaping of new technologies. This argument is illustrated in the case of the controversial 1996 decision by the California Air Resources Board to significantly revise its electric vehicle program. The article shows that the board’s (...) decision changed the image of citizenship conveyed by its policy design, thus influencing the civic values embedded within electric vehicle technology. (shrink)

The increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) by public actors has led to a push for more transparency. Previous research has conceptualized AI transparency as knowledge that empowers citizens and experts to make informed choices about the use and governance of AI. Conversely, in this paper, we critically examine if transparency-as-knowledge is an appropriate concept for a public realm where private interests intersect with democratic concerns. We conduct a practice-based design research study in which we prototype and evaluate a transparent (...) smart electric vehicle charge point, and investigate experts’ and citizens’ understanding of AI transparency. We find that citizens experience transparency as burdensome; experts hope transparency ensures acceptance, while citizens are mostly indifferent to AI; and with absent means of control, citizens question transparency’s relevance. The tensions we identify suggest transparency cannot be reduced to a product feature, but should be seen as a mediator of debate between experts and citizens. (shrink)

This article addresses two interrelated questions: Why is it often difficult to create better environmental conditions in the world using traditional political processes and new technological fixes? May science and technology studies analyses of user strategies and micropolitics contribute to societies’ treatment of these difficulties? Focusing on the problems that the electric car has confronted in establishing itself as a viable alternative to the internal combustion car, the authors argue that its failure illustrates the poverty of organized politics, on (...) one hand, and the shortcomings of engineering design practices, on the other. The authors suggest that a thoroughgoing change in the automobility system will take place only if more attention is paid to the actual use of alternative vehicles. By driving differently and viewing automobility differently, electric vehicle owners develop “user scripts” that challenge established political and engineering scripts while contributing to what the authors call a “cultural politics of automobility.”. (shrink)

Precise prediction of future vehicle information can improve the control efficiency of hybrid electric vehicles. Nowadays, most prediction models use previous information of vehicles to predict future driving velocity, which cannot reflect the impact of the driver and the environment. In this paper, a real-time energy management strategy based on driver-action-impact MPC is proposed for series hybrid electric vehicles. The proposed EMS consists of two modules: the velocity prediction module and the real-time MPC module. In the velocity prediction (...) module, a long short-term memory neural network model, which is trained by the traffic data derived from a VR-based driving simulator, is adopted to predict the future driving information by using driver action information and current vehicle’s velocity. The obtained future driving velocity is treated as the inputs of the real-time MPC module, which outputs the control variables to act on the underlying controllers of power components by solving a standard quadratic programming problem. Compared with the rule-based strategy, a 5.6% average reduction of fuel consumption is obtained. The effectiveness of real-time computation of the EMS is validated and verified through a hardware-in-the-loop test platform. (shrink)

AimThe article presents the results of a study of psychological factors of consumer loyalty concerning electric vehicles. An electric scooter was used as an example of an electric vehicle. The study involved a total of 165 people in China and 150 people in Russia. The study aimed to compare the psychological characteristics of Russian and Chinese consumers based on their attitudes toward an innovative product such as the electric scooter.Hypotheses The identity of Russian and Chinese consumers (...) and the perceived individuality of the product differ significantly; The proximity of the consumer's identity and the image of the product enhances the positive attitude toward the product; Risk strategies of consumer behavior of Chinese and Russians differ.MethodsThe questionnaire included the scales: “Measuring brand personality” by J. Aaker, “Measuring consumer identity” elaborated by Morozova and Antononva, The risk behavior scale by Vasilenko, Tkachenko.Results The first hypothesis was confirmed: there were revealed differences in the consumer behavior of the respondents of these two groups concerning in their self-perception, as well as in the perception of electric scooters. The Russians perceive an electric scooter as energetic, young, extravagant, modern, and unusual; the Chinese are down-to-earth, family-oriented, real. The hypothesis that the correlation of the consumer's identity and the individuality of the product is one of the psychological factors that determine the consumer's loyalty to a product is also confirmed. The Chinese consumers' identity is more close to the product individuality and their loyalty to the product is higher. Risk strategies of consumer behavior of Chinese and Russians significantly differ in terms of satisfaction with choosing of vehicle, the frequency of its use, and the importance of family approval of the choice of vehicle. The results can be used in the marketing strategy development. From the scientifical perspective, these results contribute to an understanding of the consumer loyalty mechanisms associated with consumer identity. (shrink)

This article investigates whether increased female representation on a board improves firm performance in terms of electric vehicle (EV) sales in China when government subsidies are available. The increase in EV sales in China is a direct result of the sustainability efforts spearheaded by the various levels of local and state governments. This area is of importance due to the rising Chinese footprint in global EV sales, the increasing role of subsidies, and a transformation from State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) to (...) market-driven firms that are more likely to pay attention to corporate governance issues such as board diversity. Using the instrumental variable (IV) approach, we estimate a two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression to control for more women representation on EV boards using firm-level data. The results indicate that board gender diversity (BGD) positively impacts firm performance in terms of EV sales. Furthermore, the effect amplifies in the presence of government subsidies. The insights provide valuable contributions to bridge the critical literature gap on how board diversity impacts firm performance in the presence of subsidies and offer valuable insights into corporate governance and policymaking. (shrink)

The proposed article is devoted to the description of an intelligent urban passenger transport system based on unmanned electric vehicles, sequentially moving along a separate line. This system is a passenger transport system of a new urban mobility, formed under the influence of social conditions generated by high population density in cities, that suppose the development of pedestrian zones and ecological modes of transport, "transport as a service", etc. In this historical context, public transport systems acquire special relevance. The (...) described transport system belongs to intelligent systems, since it is capable of functioning in autonomous mode without human intervention, adaptively responding to changes in the dynamics of the flow of passengers during the day. Passengers are transported by electric cars, which can be combined into cassettes according to the principle of road trains based on the transportation plan drawn up by the intelligent center of the transport system according to the matrix of correspondences, filled in taking into account the incoming requests for service from passengers. When drawing up a transportation plan, the algorithms of the transport system give preference to transportation according to the "source-destination" principle, that is, when the passenger goes to the destination with a minimum number of intermediate stops, and ideally without them. The paper formulates also a criterion of arising of a conflict in the movement of vehicles, which allows to identify situations when an electric vehicle driving in front can detain vehicles following after. The work has relevance because the criterion will allow to make adjustments in the schedule of movement of vehicles and exclude the loss of time and energy that carries the transport system during braking and acceleration of electric cars, as well as to reduce waiting time and travel of passengers. (shrink)

Utilization of renewable energies in association with energy storage is increased in different applications such as electrical vehicles, electric boats, and smart grids. A robust controller strategy plays a significant role to optimally utilize the energy resources available in a power system. In this paper, a suitable controller for the energy resources of an EB which consists of a 5 kW solar power plant, 5 kW fuel cell, and 2 kW battery package is designed based on the linear parameter (...) varying controller design approach. Initially, all component dynamics are augmented, and by exploiting the sector-nonlinearity approach, the LPV representation is derived. Then, the LPV control method determines the suitable gains of the states’ feedbacks to provide the required pulse commands of the boost converters of the energy resources to regulate the DC-link voltage and supply the power of EB loads. Comparing with the state-of-the-art nonlinear control methods, the developed control approach assures the stability of the overall system, as it considers all component dynamics in the design procedure. The real-time simulation results demonstrate the performance of the designed controller in the creation of a constant DC-link voltage. (shrink)

As the negative environmental impacts of transportation systems become more severe, governments and environmental groups are seeking more sustainable transportation options, such as replacing fuel-powered vehicles with electric vehicles and expanding public transportation systems to reduce the number of people driving on their own, in order to reduce the environmental impacts of transportation systems. At present, the rapid expansion of public transportation systems is not an easy task and requires a long period of time to plan for expansion and (...) construction, so people are increasingly looking to find means of transportation that meet sustainable conditions as solutions. In this context, electric bicycles are one of the solutions that people can choose, with benefits such as energy saving, carbon reduction, effective air pollution reduction, and simple and labor-saving riding. However, in Taiwan, despite the many benefits of electric bicycles, their popularity is not high. Therefore, this study focuses on the factors that affect the purchase of electric bicycles in Taiwan. The Influential Network Relation Map generated by the Z-based Decision-making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory technique is used to describe the influence relationships among the factors and to establish the key evaluation criteria of electric bicycle purchase intention. The results indicate that vehicle price, safety, motor performance, battery life, and battery durability are the most important factors in purchasing electric bicycles. Furthermore, the power of motor is considered as the factor that most significantly affects other criteria, while safety and price are most likely to be affected by other criteria. This study has contributed to academia and industry, for the dependency weights of these factors are set to provide a scientific and systematic way to show how consumers think in the decision-making process and to provide more reliable information and management implications for the electric bicycle industry. (shrink)

Policies to promote the usage of energy-saving vehicles, such as electric vehicles and hybrids, were introduced and implemented in many countries due to increasing awareness of the potential benefits of such vehicles on environmental and energy conservation. However, despite consumers’ claims of their concerns and positive attitudes toward environmental issues, those claims have not been translated into energy-saving vehicles’ purchasing behavior. Prior studies neglected the interrelationship between consumer ethnocentrism, perceived value, and consumer knowledge in influencing consumer behavior, including pro-environmental (...) behavior. This study examines the relationship between CE, PV, CK, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude and intention to purchase domestic energy-saving vehicles. A total of 396 completed questionnaires were collected through convenience sampling in Xuzhou, China. The survey data were subjected to descriptive analysis and analysis of variance using SPSS. In addition, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were utilized for the hypotheses testing. The results revealed that CE positively influenced PV and CK; PV and CK positively influenced PU and PEU. CK positively influenced PV, while PU and PEU positively influenced attitude and intention, and PEU was shown to influence PU. Furthermore, attitude was shown to significantly influence intention to purchase domestic energy-saving vehicles. Lastly, the theoretical and practical implications of the outcomes were discussed, including the limitations of the research. (shrink)

This analysis of the emergent automated vehicle technology focuses on the friction at its interface with society, clouding its future. The sequential focus of development → deployment is reconfigured as reciprocal: society ↔ technology. A best path forward is presented that incorporates environmental and social sustainability factors as they relate to climate change and public health. The path’s signpost is automated electric vehicles deployed in public and private fleets. This course has promise to recover automobility from the damaging, unsustainable (...) legacy of personal internal combustion vehicles—highlighted by their toxic and carbon emissions, and road casualties. (shrink)

Our hardware is an electric vehicle, remotely controlled over a citizens band radio link by a PDP-KL10. It carries a black and white television camera whose picture is broadcast over a UHF channel, and received and occasionally digitized by the computer. The vehicle has drive motors for the rear wheels, a steering motor coupled to a steering bar arrangement on the front wheels, and a motor controlling the camera pan angle. Each can be commanded to run forward or backward. (...) There is a potentiometer on the steering and pan linkages which enables them to be commanded to point straight ahead. The mechanical arrangements are crude, the motor speeds are unregulated, and there is no feedback to the computer other than the video from the camera. Overall dead reckoning errors are on the order of 30%. Most of the computer controlled runs so far have been with the camera pointed straight ahead and the vehicle moving forward in two foot increments, punctuated by long pauses, during which the images are processed. (shrink)

This paper studies the state of charge estimation of supercapacitors and lithium batteries in the hybrid energy storage system of electric vehicles. According to the energy storage principle of the electric vehicle composite energy storage system, the circuit models of supercapacitors and lithium batteries were established, respectively, and the model parameters were identified online using the recursive least square method and Kalman filtering algorithm. Then, the online estimation of SOC was completed based on the Kalman filtering algorithm and (...) unscented Kalman filtering algorithm. Finally, the experimental platform for SOC estimation was built and Matlab was used for calculation and analysis. The experimental results showed that the SOC estimation results reached a high accuracy, and the variation range of estimation error was [−0.94%, 0.34%]. For lithium batteries, the recursive least square method is combined with the 2RC model to obtain the optimal result, and the estimation error is within the range of [−1.16%, 0.85%] in the case of comprehensive weighing accuracy and calculation amount. Moreover, the system has excellent robustness and high reliability. (shrink)

The article describes the application of the cassette method of passenger transportation, taking into account the dynamics of passenger traffic during the day by means of an intelligent transport system based on unmanned electric vehicles. The calculation of the required number of electric cars for the cassette for a one-time fulfillment of the delivery plan is presented.

In this article, a number of future energy visions, especially those basing the energy systems on hydrogen, are discussed. Some often missing comparisons between alternatives, from a sustainability perspective, are identified and then performed for energy storage, energy transportation, and energy use in vehicles. It is shown that it is important to be aware of the losses implied by production, packaging, distribution, storage, and end-use of hydrogen when suggesting a “hydrogen economy.” It is also shown that for stationary electric (...) energy storage, fuel cell electrolyzers could be feasible. Zero-tailpipeemission vehicles are compared. The battery electric vehicle has the highest electrical efficiency, but other requirements imply that plug-in hybrids or fuel cell hybrids might be a better option in some types of vehicles. Finally, a simplified example is applied to the overall results and used to discuss the needs and nature of an energy system based on intermittent energy sources. (shrink)

The use of batteries became essential in our daily life in electronic devices, electric vehicles and energy storage systems in general terms. As they play a key role in many devices, their design and implementation must follow a thorough test process to check their features at different operating points. In this circumstance, the appearance of any kind of deviation from the expected operation must be detected. This research deals with real data registered during the testing phase of a lithium (...) iron phosphate—LiFePO4—battery. The process is divided into four different working points, alternating charging, discharging and resting periods. This work proposes a hybrid classifier, based on one-class techniques, whose aim is to detect anomalous situations during the battery test. The faults are created by modifying the measured cell temperature a slight ratio from their real value. A detailed analysis of each technique performance is presented. The average performance of the chosen classifier presents successful results. (shrink)

. With an overall objective of establishing association between air pollutants and incidence of respiratory diseases, the environmental professionals and medical practitioners have made significant contribution, using statistical mechanics in modelling epidemiological data, population characteristics, and pollution parameters. Broadly speaking, the studies have shown that the increase in vehicular traffic has been one of the causes of respiratory diseases. However, the WHO Centre for Environment and Health, Europe in its 2005 document states: “There is little evidence for a causal relationship (...) between asthma prevalence/incidence and air pollution in general, though the evidence is suggestive of a causal association between the prevalence/incidence of asthma symptoms and living in close proximity to traffic”. Decision making process in a real world is invariably based on perceptions which are expressed in words or may be in numeric terms and not in probability terms. In the paper, we made an attempt to model the perceptions of experienced pulmonologists in arriving at their combined degree of belief/plausibility/ignorance for all the possible combinations of identified respiratory diseases, using evidence theory and fuzzy relational calculus without collecting sizeable parametric data accumulated over a period of years. Tightening pollution norms by the regulatory authorities is an overall objective of the global efforts on greenhouse gases reduction in general, and air pollution mitigation in particular. The concept of solar battery operated electric vehicles for road transport is advocated, initially for two/three wheelers, and extending it to four wheelers, especially in the developing countries. (shrink)

With the rapid development of emerging technologies such as electric vehicles and high-speed railways, the insulated gate bipolar transistor is becoming increasingly important as the core of the power electronic devices. Therefore, it is imperative to maintain the stability and reliability of IGBT under different circumstances. By predicting the junction temperature of IGBT, the operating condition and aging degree can be roughly evaluated. However, the current predicting approaches such as optical, physical, and electrical methods have various shortcomings. Hence, the (...) backpropagation neural network can be applied to avoid the difficulties encountered by conventional approaches. In this article, an advanced prediction model is proposed to obtain accurate IGBT junction temperature. This method can be divided into three phases, BP neural network estimation, interpolation, and Kalman filter prediction. First, the validities of the BP neural network and Kalman filter are verified, respectively. Then, the performances of them are compared, and the superiority of the Kalman filter is proved. In the future, the application of neural networks or deep learning in power electronics will create more possibilities. (shrink)

This paper analyzes and compares different policy scenarios as well as discusses price elasticities and willingness to pay and to accept using revealed preference data from the French new-car market in 2014 by means of a cross-nested logit model. We focus particularly on electric and hybrid vehicles. We use interactions between the cost and the household income to analyze the sensitivity towards different policy scenarios per income level. Results show that the willingness to pay and to accept obtained in (...) our study is consistent with the real-market conditions. We also find that the most effective scenario to increase the market shares of new sold electric vehicles is that of a major technological advance such as a decrease in price due to cheaper manufacturing costs and an increase in driving range, rather than a policy-based scenario. In addition, the market segment that has more potential to increase the market shares of electric vehicle purchase is the middle-income level. In the paper, we discuss how to overcome the difficulties of working with revealed preference data, and propose multiple imputations to impute the attributes of the unchosen alternatives, by drawing from their empirical distributions. (shrink)

With the widespread application of electric vehicles, the study of the power lithium-ion battery has broad prospects and great academic significance. The state of charge is one of the key parts in battery management system, which is used to provide guarantee for the safe and efficient operation of LIB. To obtain the reliable SOC estimation result under the influence of simple model and measurement noise, a novel estimation method with adaptive feedback compensator is presented in this paper. The simplified (...) dynamic external electrical characteristic of LIB is represented by the one-order Thevenin equivalent circuit model and then the ECM parameters are identified by the forgetting factor recursive least squares method. Fully taking into account the feedback effect of terminal voltage innovation, the combination of adaptive extended Kalman filter and innovation vector-based proportional-integral-derivative feedback is proposed to estimate the LIB SOC. The common single proportional feedback of Kalman filter is replaced by the innovation vector-based PID feedback, which means that the multiple prior terminal voltage innovation is used in the measurement correction step of KF. The results reveal that the AEKF with PID feedback compensation strategy can improve the SOC estimation performance compared with the common AEKF, and it reveals good robust capability and rapid convergence speed for initial SOC errors. The maximum absolute error and average absolute error for SOC estimation are close to 4% and 2.6%, respectively. (shrink)

The choice of fuels has frequently been at the center of debates about how a future low-carbon mobility system can be achieved. This paper introduces two visions of biogas fuels and electricity using material from interviews and documents in Swedish transport. These visions are analyzed as interrelated sociotechnical imaginaries. To better understand the way visions of biogas and electric vehicles dynamically shape and condition each other, four dimensions of sociotechnical imaginaries are further developed: spatial boundedness, temporality, coherence and contestation, (...) and the socio-material relations they are associated with. Imaginaries of biogas and EVs differ with respect to these characteristics. The biogas imaginary is made up of locally bounded visions of the desirable future, showing how imaginaries can be fragmented and contested, often because of their embeddedness in local socio-material systems of resource use. This local boundedness is exemplified by contrasting cases of contested biogas imaginaries in the Swedish municipalities of Linköping and Malmö. The imaginary of EVs, in contrast, is more uniform nationally and even influenced by international expectations that in the future vehicles will be shared, electric, and autonomous. The qualities of these imaginaries shape the way they interrelate and coevolve as sociotechnical changes of the transport system unfold. (shrink)

Hybrid energy storage system has been widely studied as an important technology for electric vehicles. Since the hybrid energy storage system is a nonlinear and complex system, the modeling of the system and the high-precision nonlinear control strategy are technical difficulties for research. The establishment of a high-precision mathematical model of the hybrid energy storage system is the basis for the study of high-quality nonlinear control algorithms. Fortunately, the theory of fractional calculus can help build accurate mathematical models of (...) hybrid energy storage systems. In order to obtain the high-quality nonlinear control strategy of this complex system, this paper, respectively, carried out fractional-order modeling and analysis on the three basic equivalent working states of the hybrid energy storage system of electric vehicles. Among them, the fractional-order average state space model is carried out for the equivalent Buck and Boost mode. Also, the steady-state analysis of the equivalent Dual-Boost mode is carried out by combining the fractional-order calculus theory with the equivalent small parameter variable method. Finally, the effectiveness and precision of the fractional-order model are proved by simulation and experiment. (shrink)

During the last decade, Central Europe became a cynosure for the world for its unparalleled public support for renewable energy. For instance, the production of electricity from purpose-grown biomass received approximately twice the amount in subsidies as that produced from biowaste. Moreover, the guaranteed purchase price of electricity from solar panels was set approximately five times higher than that from conventional sources. This controversial environmental donation policy led to the devastation of large areas of arable land, a worsening of food (...) availability, unprecedented market distortions, and serious threats to national budgets, among other things. Now, the first proposals to donate the purchase price of electric vehicles from national budgets have appeared for public debate. Advocates of these ideas argue that they can solve the issue of electricity overproduction, and that electric vehicles will reduce emissions in cities. However, our analysis reveals that, as a result of previous scandals, environmental issues have become less significant to local citizens. Given that electric cars are not yet affordable for most people, in terms of local purchasing power, this action would further undermine national budgets. Furthermore, while today’s electromobiles produce zero pollution when operated, their sum of emissions remains much higher than that of conventional combustion engines. Therefore, we conclude that the mass usage of electromobiles could result in the unethical improvement of a city environment at the expense of marginal regions. (shrink)

Battery energy storage is the pivotal project of renewable energy systems reform and an effective regulator of energy flow. Parallel battery packs can effectively increase the capacity of battery modules. However, the power loss caused by the uncertainty of parallel battery branch current poses severe challenge to the economy and safety of electric vehicles. Accuracy of battery branch current prediction is needed to improve the parallel connection. This paper proposes a radial basis function neural network model based on the (...) pigeon-inspired optimization method and successfully applies the algorithm to predict the parallel branch current of the battery pack. Numerical results demonstrate the high accuracy of the proposed pigeon-inspired optimized RBF model for parallel battery branch forecasting and provide a useful tool for the prediction of parallel branch currents of battery packs. (shrink)

To protect energy resources and alleviate environmental pollution, many countries attach great importance to the transformation of traditional industries into clean energy industries. In this paper, fuel vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and electric vehicles are included in the research. Then, based on the aging chain and coflow theory of SDs, we construct a dynamic matching model of the auto industry upgrade process and its energy consumption attributes. The simulation results of China’s auto industry show that the upgrading of the auto (...) industry is an evolutionary process from high energy consumption and high pollution to low energy consumption and no pollution and the transition from FVs and HVs to EVs will undergo two adjustments; simply reducing energy supply does not have the expected impact on vehicle size and vehicle energy consumption intensity and only by adjusting the energy supply and upgrade ratios together, energy utilization efficiency can be improved; market screening time has an impact on auto industry upgrade speed by affecting vehicle market share and dwell time; China’s auto industry upgrade process should adhere to “problem-oriented” and strengthen consumer guidance, technology innovation, and infrastructure construction. The conclusions can provide references for industrial policy adjustment and industrial structure optimization. (shrink)

Lithium-ion batteries have been widely used as energy storage systems and in electric vehicles due to their desirable balance of both energy and power densities as well as continual falling price. Accurate estimation of the state-of-charge of a battery pack is important in managing the health and safety of battery packs. This paper proposes a compact radial basis function neural model to estimate the state-of-charge of lithium battery packs. Firstly, a suitable input set strongly correlated with the package SOC (...) is identified from directly measured voltage, current, and temperature signals by a fast recursive algorithm. Secondly, a RBF neural model for battery pack SOC estimation is constructed using the FRA strategy to prune redundant hidden layer neurons. Then, the particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to optimize the kernel parameters. Finally, a conventional RBF neural network model, an improved RBF neural model using the two stage method, and a least squares support vector machine model are also used to estimate the battery SOC as a comparative study. Simulation results show that generalization error of SOC estimation using the novel RBF neural network model is less than half of that using other methods. Furthermore, the model training time is much less than the LSSVM method and the improved RBF neural model using the two-stage method. (shrink)

With the increasing number of electric vehicles, the charging demand of EVs has brought many new research hotspots, i.e., charging path planning and charging pricing strategy of the charging stations. In this paper, an integrated framework is proposed for multiobjective EV path planning with varied charging pricing strategies, considering the driving distance, total time consumption, energy consumption, charging fee such factors, while the charging pricing strategy is designed based on the objectives of maximizing the total revenues of the charging (...) stations and balancing the profits of the charging stations. First, the energy consumption model of EVs, the M/M/S queuing model of charging stations, and the charging model of charging piles are established. A novel charging path planning algorithm is proposed based on bidirectional Martins’ algorithm, which can assist EV users to select charging stations and plan charging paths. Then, a particle swarm optimization algorithm is applied to solve the optimal solution of charging station pricing designation. Finally, the method proposed in the paper is simulated on the street map of Shenzhen to verify the efficacy of the multiobjective charging path planning for EVs and the feasibility of the charging pricing strategy. (shrink)

In 1963 Duchamp described his vertical installation of three Readymades at the Pasadena Art Museum as “readymade talk of what goes on in the Large Glass.” Elsewhere, he spoke of the Readymades as “vehicles for unloading ideas,” and during the years 1912-15 his mind was filled with ideas as he invented the “playful physics” for his techno-scientific allegory of quest, The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even [The Large Glass]. This essay argues that the “ideas” being unloaded in the (...) Readymades were rooted in his extensive study of contemporary science and technology as well as the biographical experience of his stay at Herne Bay on the English seacoast during August 1913. Readymades addressed include the Bicycle Wheel, With Hidden Noise, Paris Air, and Fresh Widow. Central themes include string or thread, traced from his preoccupation with tennis during his holiday, and the impact of the electrical spectacle of the illuminated Pier Pavilion at Herne Bay. (shrink)

The EU has launched targets for energy efficiency and the reduction in pollutant emissions in the transport sector. It establishes a framework to foster the promotion and development of a market for clean vehicles. In 2011 the EU passed a “Roadmap to a single European transport area—Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system”. This roadmap includes 40 concrete initiatives for the next decade to build a competitive transport system that will increase mobility, remove major barriers in key areas and (...) fuel growth and employment. The objectives concern well-functioning passenger and freight links that are vital for European undertakings and citizens. At the same time, the proposals will dramatically reduce Europe’s dependence on imported oil. All in all the EU transport policies aim at fostering clean, safe and efficient travel throughout Europe, which requires innovations in many areas—like safe electric cars—and needs to engage not just the users but the entire transport industry facing drastic structural changes. (shrink)

This is the story of a seductive idea and its sobering consequences. The twentieth century brought a new cultural confidence in the social powers of invention – but also saw the advance of consumerism, world wars, globalisation and human-generated climate change. Techno-Fixers traces how passive optimism and active manipulations were linked to our growing trust in technological innovation. It pursues the evolving idea through engineering hubris, radical utopian movements, science fiction fanzines, policy-maker soundbites, corporate marketing, and consumer culture. It explores (...) how evangelists of technological fixes have proselytised their faith, and critically examines the examples and products of their followers. The new technological confidence mixed together beliefs that were simultaneously compelling and unsettling. As motor vehicles, electricity supplies and radio became part of modern life in the early decades of the century, it was hard to argue against the transformative effects and inevitability of such transitions. Like it or not, social consequences seemed to come inexorably with the Machine Age, the Space Age and the Information Age. This deterministic vision implied an ever more technological future with unavoidable social consequences. For many, innovative technologies promised appealing new lifestyles and powers. But for a narrower band of proponents – the first generation of technological fixers – wise engineering invention was touted as a guaranteed route to positive human benefits and societal progress. Socially-engaged engineers and designers argued that such improvements could be directed, hastened and amplified. These engineering adventurers argued that modern societies could be guided only by rational designers. They contended that adroit technological solutions could solve contemporary problems better than any traditional method, including economic initiatives, citizen education, political ideology, lifestyle changes, legal frameworks and moral guidance. Their seductive claims were tamed by more mainstream American enthusiasts, and eventually boiled down to the concept of the technological fix. Their shared confidence infused policy-makers, broadcasters and science popularisers. Trust in technological fixes shaped a new generation of managers and law-makers, engineers and educators, futurists and citizens – and continues to drive a new generation of techno-fixers today. This cultural wave, its promoters and detractors, have championed the promise and voiced concerns that we have inherited, still unresolved. This book tracks the hubristic influencers and weighs up the confidences and concerns associated with them: the dramatic potential for novel technologies to work alongside longer human traditions to meet our enduring ambitions – or to reshape society for the worse. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Matter and Spirit in the Age of Animal MagnetismEric G. WilsonDuring the Romantic period, writers on both sides of the Atlantic explored the sleepwalker as a merger of holiness and horror. Emerging when scientific thinkers for the first time were connecting spirit to electricity and magnetism, the somnambulist became to certain Romantics a disclosure of the difficulty of harmonizing unseen and seen, agency and necessity. This problem prominently arose (...) in Anton Mesmer's late eighteenth-century experiments in animal magnetism, in which the sleepwalker proved a paradox: an opaque revelation of transparent currents and an unconscious vehicle of sophisticated thought. Romantics such as Coleridge embraced the somnambulist as an embodiment of these troubles involved in relating motion and meaning. Coleridge and those who responded to him saw in the hypnotized human this sobering possibility: the invisible requires the visible to make itself manifest while the visible needs the invisible to become significant. 1 This is sublime and sinister: to elevate a material form to spiritual power is transcendence; to sink the boundless into a body is grotesque.Here I explore the philosophical implications of animal magnetism, the place of the sleepwalker in the history of ideas, and the role of the hypnotized human in Romantic writers, especially Coleridge. I also meditate on relationships between matter and spirit, machine and human, word and thing. Along the way, I place the history of ideas and the works of Romantic writers in mutually illuminating dialogues. The literary texts shed fresh light on philosophical problems while the ideas reveal hidden literary elements.The somnambulistic trance had been around long before Mesmer's magnetic sleeps. For centuries, shamans had used auto-hypnosis to sound [End Page 329] their souls and other-hypnosis to cure their tribe-members' ailments. However, somnambulism could not become a scientific phenomenon until Europeans in laboratories began to study electricity and magnetism. In the early modern period, Paracelsus argued that a vital fluid courses through the cosmos. The human being draws this flow like a magnet attracts force. When the body pulls to itself evil effluvia, it falls ill. To return patients to health, Paracelsus placed magnets on painful areas. He hoped to extract the unwanted current and return it to the cosmic swirl. 2 In "magnetizing" spirit, Paracelsus opened a door for empirical inquiry into the invisible world. In 1600, William Gilbert claimed that magnets correspond to the earth: both are animated by universal attraction and repulsion. 3 By the end of the seventeenth-century, Newton proposed that things are impelled by a force that draws and repels. Newton's theory of gravity inspired natural philosophers of the next centuries to search for a principle of which the magnet and the spark are manifestations. 4During the second half of the eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth, natural philosophers explored electricity and magnetism with unprecedented precision. In 1752, Benjamin Franklin revealed the mystery of lightning and perhaps the spark of life. 5 Inspired by Franklin, F. C. Oetinger, J. L. Fricker, and Prokop Divisch developed a theology of electricity, based on the belief that God is the electrical current. 6 Later in the century, Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta debated over whether the galvanic flow might be the origin and principle of life itself. 7 A few years before Franklin harvested lightning, John Michell argued that the magnetic force is not constrained to lodestones but is possibly pervasive. Some years later, Franz Aepinus suggested that magnetism and electricity manifest a deep energy. Soon after, C. A. de Coulomb discovered the mathematical law by which electrical and magnetic forces operate (Whittaker, pp. 50–59).These findings led to the breakthroughs of the nineteenth century. 8 In 1807, Humphry Davy hypothesized that chemical elements interact through electromagnetic affinity or repulsion. 9 In 1820, H. C. Oersted demonstrated the correspondence between electricity and magnetism. The same year, A. M. Ampere formulated the laws by which electrical and magnetic currents interact (Whittaker, pp. 81–86). Michael Faraday in 1831 revealed electromagnetic induction and thus inaugurated a second Copernican revolution: he showed that matter is not solid and discrete but a field of electromagnetic energy. 10 The dreams of [End... (shrink)

For at least the past three decades, injuries have been recognized as an important public health problem in the United States. In 2001, there were approximately 157,000 deaths due to injuries in the US. There were also almost 30 million non-fatal injury incidents.Injuries have been defined as: “…any unintentional or intentional damage to the body resulting from acute exposure to thermal, mechanical, electrical, or chemical energy or from the absence of such essentials as heat or oxygen”. Within public health, the (...) field of injury prevention and control is dedicated to reducing the burden of injuries on the lives of people around the world.Injury prevention seeks to reduce injuries by: 1) identifying risk factors, 2) designing interventions to address the risk factors, 3) implementing those interventions, 4) evaluating their effectiveness, and 5) replicating those that work. As with many other public health problems, interventions can target factors associated with the human or host, vehicle or vector, and the physical or social environment. (shrink)

For at least the past three decades, injuries have been recognized as an important public health problem in the United States. In 2001, there were approximately 157,000 deaths due to injuries in the US. There were also almost 30 million non-fatal injury incidents.Injuries have been defined as: “…any unintentional or intentional damage to the body resulting from acute exposure to thermal, mechanical, electrical, or chemical energy or from the absence of such essentials as heat or oxygen”. Within public health, the (...) field of injury prevention and control is dedicated to reducing the burden of injuries on the lives of people around the world.Injury prevention seeks to reduce injuries by: 1) identifying risk factors, 2) designing interventions to address the risk factors, 3) implementing those interventions, 4) evaluating their effectiveness, and 5) replicating those that work. As with many other public health problems, interventions can target factors associated with the human or host, vehicle or vector, and the physical or social environment. (shrink)

In general terms there are only three primary energy sources: fossil fuels, renewable energy, and nuclear fission. For fueling road transportation, there has been much speculation about the use of hydrogen as an energy carrier, which would usher in the “hydrogen economy.” A parallel situation would use a simple battery to store electricity directly in order to power vehicles. The efficiency of these two different approaches has been compared and shows that the hydrogen and fuel cell system would consume nearly (...) three times the primary energy required by a battery storage system. Successful introduction into the marketplace of the plug-in hybrid vehicle would eliminate the need for road vehicles to use petroleum fuels, at least for the majority of miles traveled. If electricity were to be generated primarily from sustainable primary energy sources, then road transportation would also become sustainable, resulting in an “electricity economy” rather than a “hydrogen economy.”. (shrink)

We study the case of a Chinese industrial policy, implemented in Shanghai that makes it mandatory for car manufacturers to share electro-mechanical performance and real time navigation data from their entire fleet of electric and hybrid vehicles with local and central government authorities. This policy seeks to prevent fraud in state subsidies, reduce emissions, assess the performance of New Energy Vehicles and strengthen the competitiveness of Chinese manufacturers of these vehicles. We argue that economies of scope in data aggregation (...) may provide traditional market failure arguments in favor of government intervention and mandatory data pooling. Our paper illustrates how data access regimes could be used for economic competition. The EU and China pursue similar data sharing and pooling policy goals that hinge on economies of scope in data aggregation. However, they follow very different political processes to achieve these goals. (shrink)