Living lab ‘Rotterdam tests electric driving’ (focus on the monitoring of the impact on the electricity grid)

The Dutch government launched a `Living Lab´ `Electric and Hybrid driving´ to facilitate, accelerate and stimulate the innovation and adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles. Part of this program is the living lab `Rotterdam tests electric driving´ or “RTER”, which is the largest integral study of EV in the Netherlands so far. The city of Rotterdam, DNO `Stedin´ and energy supplier `Eneco´ aim to stimulate electric transport, in order to improve air quality, reduce CO₂ emissions and noise nuisance. The objective of the city of Rotterdam is to turn 25% of their own fleet into electric or hybrid vehicles, by the end of 2014. The project is a joint initiative to set up a largescale test lab to monitor electric vehicles. Concerning the use of EV, there are still many uncertainties. From april 2012 on, 75 electric or hybrid vehicles are tested. The vehicles are monitored for at least one year on issues like energy consumption, costs (including management and maintenance), charging behavior, environmental issues, user experiences and security. The study ends in 2013. The Belgian research center Laborelec is responsible for analyzing and reporting the data collected. The following research questions are examined: 1. Understanding the factors that influence the energy consumption of electric vehicles 2. Identify the gain of avoided emissions 3. Determine the effects of electric driving on the electricity grid 4. Summarize the experiences of the users of EV, as to charging behavior in particular 5. Determine the impact of electric vehicles on the use of vehicles and the mobility behavior of users of EVs of the city of Rotterdam, Stedin and Eneco 6. Define the availability and reliability of electric vehicles 7. Determine the economic viability 8. Identify the safety of electric vehicles 9. Build up pr