This report describes a study carried out to assist the design of an infrastructure for refuelling battery electric cars. The first three stages of the study investigated petrol sales in reading. A one-week survey by questionnaire of all filling stations in the area yielded estimates of petrol sales at individual stations together with number of customers served and quantities purchased per customer. A computer simulation of traffic flow attempted to predict weekly petrol sales in nine sectors of the town; the results agreed with those from the questionnaires for the whole of reading but not for the individual sectors. A one-day count of traffic and petrol buyers at a single filling station was related to the traffic flows in the whole town to give a typical daily pattern of petrol buyers. Finally a simulation procedure was developed to investigate the effects of demand on queue length at battery exchange stations. This proved to be a useful tool in estimating the necessary size of the stations. (Author/publisher)
Abstract