Harnessing the power of open-source vehicle and mobility tools is crucial for navigating the pathways to reduced transportation energy consumption and emissions.
For decades, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has been at the forefront of developing open-source tools designed to propel advancements in transportation and mobility. These innovative tools are specifically engineered to empower decision-makers, organizations, communities, and individuals in the electric mobility sector. Unlike proprietary software, NREL’s open-source solutions offer transparency, adaptability, and cost-effectiveness, allowing users to examine, modify, and distribute them freely. This customizable nature ensures that these electric mobility tools can be tailored to meet unique needs and address specific challenges within the rapidly evolving landscape of electric vehicles and sustainable transportation.
Jake Holden, a senior decarbonized vehicle systems researcher at NREL, emphasizes the importance of adaptability: “Tools are only as useful as they are adaptable to specific needs. NREL’s transportation and mobility tools are designed to address the specific challenges decision-makers face in the electric mobility transition.” The open-source nature of these electric mobility tools is vital, enabling users to explore diverse scenarios and customize solutions for integrating energy efficiency advancements. From optimizing electric vehicle routing and charging infrastructure to measuring the carbon footprint of electric car usage, these tools provide comprehensive support for the electric mobility revolution.
Driving Electric Vehicle Innovation Through Simulation and Modeling
NREL’s suite of open-source electric mobility tools includes sophisticated simulation and modeling software designed to tackle critical aspects of electric vehicle development and deployment. These tools are essential for supporting the efficient use of advanced electric transportation technologies and systems, accelerating the shift towards a sustainable future.
The Advanced Locomotive Technology and Rail Infrastructure Optimization System (ALTRIOS), while initially focused on rail, showcases the powerful simulation capabilities applicable to broader electric mobility challenges. ALTRIOS is an open-source simulation tool that can guide the decarbonization of transportation networks, including understanding the integration of electric freight and logistics. By simulating real-world railway operations, ALTRIOS helps answer crucial questions about freight demand, speed, and train dynamics, which are analogous to optimizing electric vehicle fleets and logistics. This tool can also shed light on ideal powertrain technologies and infrastructure needs for electric freight, contributing to the broader understanding of electric mobility solutions.
For light, medium, and heavy-duty electric vehicles, the Future Automotive Systems Technology Simulator (FASTSim™) is an invaluable resource. FASTSim is a user-friendly simulation tool that models a wide array of electric vehicle types, including battery electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. This tool enables researchers and engineers to quickly and accurately assess the efficiency, performance, cost, and battery life impacts of technology improvements in electric cars and trucks.
Aaron Brooker, a senior model engineer at NREL, highlights FASTSim’s versatility: “FASTSim models just the important powertrain details, so it only requires basic vehicle specs, making it easy to model all the different vehicles quickly and accurately.” The integration of FASTSim with tools like RouteE has even enabled Google Maps to provide fuel-efficient routing, significantly reducing carbon emissions. This demonstrates the practical application of NREL’s electric mobility tools in enhancing the efficiency of electric cars and related infrastructure.
The Highly Integrated Vehicle Ecosystem Simulation Framework (HIVE) is specifically designed to simulate the complex operations of electric mobility service provider fleets. HIVE’s flexible architecture allows for the creation of large-scale simulations to analyze the impacts of various scenarios on the energy efficiency and performance of electric vehicle fleets. Researchers can utilize HIVE to examine electric vehicle fleet control strategies, optimize electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) locations, and solve fleet composition challenges. HIVE’s design prioritizes ease of use, scalability, and co-simulation, making it a powerful tool for advancing electric mobility solutions.
For instance, HIVE was instrumental in simulating the electrification of New York City’s taxi and ride-hailing vehicles, providing critical insights into the fast-charging infrastructure required for large-scale electric vehicle adoption. Rob Fitzgerald, a computational science researcher at NREL, explains HIVE’s impact: “HIVE simulates sample outcomes across all agents and points in time, from individual vehicles to entire fleets, informing fleet operators’ clean energy decisions.” This capability is crucial for fleet operators transitioning to electric vehicles, ensuring efficient energy management and infrastructure planning.
Optimizing Electric Vehicle Usage with Predictive Energy Tools
Beyond simulation, NREL’s electric mobility tools extend to predicting and tracking energy consumption for electric vehicles, enhancing route planning and user awareness.
NREL’s Open Platform for Agile Trip Heuristics (NREL OpenPATH) empowers electric vehicle users to track their energy consumption and carbon footprint across various travel modes, including electric cars and e-bikes. Utilizing a smartphone app, OpenPATH continuously collects and analyzes data, providing communities and individuals with valuable insights into their travel patterns and energy usage. This tool is particularly relevant for understanding and promoting the adoption of electric vehicles and other sustainable transportation options.
NREL OpenPATH played a key role in the Can Do Colorado E-Bike Pilot, one of the largest e-bike pilot programs in the U.S., demonstrating its capability to gather comprehensive travel data and support electric mobility initiatives. K. Shankari, principal researcher for NREL OpenPATH, emphasizes its community-level impact: “NREL OpenPATH empowers communities to identify sustainability opportunities where they live. Communities can use the continuous data collection and analysis for travel surveys and program evaluation to inform mobility strategies and decisions, such as e-bike adoption, and to better understand how their communities travel.” This data-driven approach is essential for tailoring electric mobility solutions to specific community needs and promoting widespread adoption.
The Route Energy Prediction Model (RouteE) is another critical tool for electric vehicle optimization, predicting energy use for a given route. RouteE considers various driving conditions—such as traffic congestion, speed, road type, grade, and turns—to generate accurate energy estimates for all vehicle types, including existing and future electric cars. This versatile tool is invaluable for route optimization, electric vehicle range estimation, and calculating energy savings for eco-routing options, directly enhancing the efficiency and usability of electric vehicles.
Leading companies like Google Maps have recognized the value of RouteE, integrating it to develop more eco-friendly routing options. This collaboration leverages RouteE and FASTSim to create models of on-road energy consumption, providing electric vehicle users with routes that minimize energy usage and maximize efficiency.
Democratizing Electric Mobility Through Open-Source Innovation
NREL’s commitment to open-source electric mobility tools accelerates the global transition to sustainable transportation. By lowering development costs, speeding up innovation, and fostering collaboration, these tools are democratizing access to advanced technologies and data. Fleet managers, urban planners, communities, and individual electric vehicle owners can leverage these resources to analyze data, understand the impacts of advanced technologies, and make informed decisions about electric mobility adoption and infrastructure development.
Jake Holden concludes, “With NREL’s mobility and transportation tools, it becomes possible to understand the energy efficiency and emissions impacts new technologies can have before big investments or real-world deployments are ever necessary. Making these tools widely available and accessible to the public democratizes the power of transforming energy,” particularly in the electric mobility sector.
Explore more about NREL’s sustainable transportation and mobility research and their comprehensive suite of transportation and mobility tools. Stay updated with the latest news by subscribing to NREL’s quarterly transportation and mobility research newsletter, Sustainable Mobility Matters.
