Towards Modelling Energy Demand of Vehicles in Cities: An Agent-Based Method

In 2020, over 3 million electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) were sold, a 40% increase from 2019. There are now over 10 million electric cars on the roads globally, and this number is expected to rise to 300 million by 2030. Due to the significant environmental and health implications of internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs), national governments are adopting cleaner vehicle technologies at an unprecedented pace. Much of the literature regarding electric vehicles is centred around charging vehicle infrastructure and levels of market penetration. Consequently, there is an opportunity to explore energy consumption characteristics and produce estimates of energy demands in urban areas. This study employs an agent-based model of vehicle activity to quantify electric energy consumption through the simulation of a heterogeneous fleet of electric vehicles within an urban street network under several experimental conditions.