The refuelling infrastructure required if great britain's 14 million cars were replaced by battery-electric cars has been estimated, using computer simulation, for three advanced battery types. The calculations used electric car designs with approximately the performances of today's cars and carrying out today's journey patterns. The infrastructure consisted of charging points at own premises, at other parking locations (opportunity charging), and battery exchange stations on motorways, trunk and principal roads. Its main characteristics were found to be that 80-85 per cent of the energy would be obtained at own premises, 10 per cent by opportunity charging, and 5-10 per cent by battery exchange; the use of own premises and opportunity charging would reduce total infrastructure costs substantially; considerable latitude in the opportunity charging infrastructure would be possible without altering effectiveness or total cost. Its annual cost would be £ 270 - £ 630 million depending upon battery type. This would be less than 5 per cent of the electric car system costs.
Abstract