ITS Monday: Edition 38, 2024

Do electric cars actually present a greater fire risk than petrol or diesel? EV fire myths busted

First up this week is the first of a few articles on the one topic – electric vehicles. In this first story is another topic, that being the safety of electric batteries. Usually in the are of micromobility, but in this instance it’s EVs.

“When it comes to electric cars and fires, fake news can send the rumour mill wild – but is any of it true? We find out.”

Related iMOVE article:

• Electric Vehicles: Info, Projects & Resources
  
• Alternative Fuels: Info, Projects & Resources
• FACTS: A Framework for an Australian Clean Transport Strategy
• The Conductor Series: The electrification of transport
• Liar, liar, e-Bikes on fire

Related iMOVE projects:

• EV batteries: Repair, refurbish, repurpose, recycle
• Second lives for electric vehicle batteries

Electric car sales have slumped. Misinformation is one of the reasons

An article from The Conversation, co-authored by Milad Haghani, Senior Lecturer of Urban Analytics & Resilience, UNSW Sydney, and Hadi Ghaderi, Professor in Supply Chain and Freight Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology.

“Australia isn’t simply mirroring a broader global trend. It’s true sales have slowed in parts of Europe and the United States — often due to reduced incentives. But strong sales growth continues in other regions, such as China and India. A range of factors or combinations of them could help explain the trend in Australia. These include governments axing incentives, concerns about safety and depreciation, and misinformation.”

Electric vehicles more expensive to insure than petrol cars: Data

The EV theme this week on ITS Monday continues. This article has been generated by a press release, study, call it what you will, from one insurance industry member, Compare The Market. Later in the article figures from another insurance comparison business (Mozo) are discussed.

“But Compare The Market said the top five selling EVs in the first half of 2024 were on average 43 per cent more expensive to insure than a “similar petrol-powered model”.”

Are electric vehicles riskier? A comparative study of driving behaviour and insurance claims for internal combustion engine, hybrid and electric vehicles

The last article this week on the topic of EVs, and it’s again concerned with insurance. This tome it’s a new academic paper, co-authored by Kevin McDonnell, Barry Sheehan, Finbarr Murphy, and Montserrat Guillen, variously of the University of Limerick and Universitat de Barcelona, and as such the focus is very much on Europe. The abstract:

“Electric vehicles (EVs) differ significantly from their internal combustion engine (ICE) counterparts, with reduced mechanical parts, Lithium-ion batteries and differences in pedal and transmission control. These differences in vehicle operation, coupled with the proliferation of EVs on our roads, warrant an in-depth investigation into the divergent risk profiles and driving behaviour of EVs, Hybrids (HYB) and ICEs. In this unique study, we analyze a novel telematics dataset of 14,642 vehicles in the Netherlands accompanied by accident claims data.

We train a Logistic Regression model to predict the occurrence of driver at-fault claims, where an at-fault claim refers to First and Third Party damages where the driver was at fault. Our results reveal that EV drivers are more exposed to incurring at-fault claims than ICE drivers despite their lower average mileage.

Additionally, we investigate the financial implications of these increased at-fault claims likelihoods and have found that EVs experience a 6.7% increase in significant first-party damage costs compared to ICE. When analyzing driver behaviour, we found that EVs and HYBs record fewer harsh acceleration, braking, cornering and speeding events than ICE.

However, these reduced harsh events do not translate to reducing claims frequency for EVs. This research finds evidence of a higher frequency of accidents caused by Electric Vehicles. This burden should be considered explicitly by regulators, manufacturers, businesses and the general public when evaluating the cost of transitioning to alternative fuel vehicles.”

A tale of two continents – the experience of on demand bus transport

This is from the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies‘ ongoing series Thinking Outside the Box, and is co-authored by Professor Emerita Corinne Mulley and Professor John Nelson. It considers the effectiveness of various implementations of on demand transport (ODT) bus-based services both in Australia and the UK

Related iMOVE project:

• Gippsland community e-Bus pilot

Over 20,000 Aucklanders make use of $50 transport cap

12 weeks into this scheme, it’s hit the 20,000 user mark. “”Public transport customers do not need to do anything to start receiving the seven-day cap beyond tagging on and off with their AT HOP card as usual. They will know they have reached the cap when they see a $0.00 fare on the HOP card reader.”

Related iMOVE projects:

• Implications of large-scale price reductions in public transport fares
• Behavioural change for sustainable transport
• Mobility landscapes: Mobility as a Service customer impact trial