Light-duty vehicles

The sum of the downstream costs adds roughly 7.9 cents per Hter (300/gal) and the adjustment of the final cost for an amount of methanol fuel equivalent ia distance driven to an equal volume gasoline involves a multiplier ranging from 1.6 to 2.0, depending on fuel specification and the assumed efficiency for methanol light-duty vehicles as compared to gasoline vehicles. The California Advisory Board has undertaken such cost assessment (11). 

Dedicated Vehicles. Only Brazil and California have continued implementing alcohols in the transportation sector. The BraziUan program, the largest alternative fuel program in the world, used about 7.5% of oil equivalent of ethanol in 1987 (equivalent to 150,000 bbl of cmde oil per day). In 1987 about 4 million vehicles operated on 100% ethanol and 94% of all new vehicles purchased that year were ethanol-fueled. About 25% of Brazil s light-duty vehicle fleet (10) operate on alcohol. The leading BraziUan OEMs are Autolatina (a joint venture of Volkswagen and Ford), GM, and Fiat. Vehicles are manufactured and marketed in Brazil. 

Table 8. California Light-Duty Vehicle Exhaust Emission Standards...

Data from twenty 1989 light-duty vehicles. 

State of California Air Resource Board, California Fuel Evaporative Emissions Standard and Test Procedure for 1970 Model Light Duty Vehicles, April 16, 1968. 

Light-Duty Vehicles and Light -Duty Trucks, Federal Register, Vol. 59, No. 66, April 6, 1994. 

Borrom-Bird, C. E. (1996). Fuel Cell Commercialization Issues for Light-Duty Vehicle Applications." JournsI of Power Sources 61 33 8. 

Federal Emission Control Requirements for Light-Duty Vehicles... 

Burke, A.F. and Gardiner, M. Hydrogen Storage Options Technologies and Comparisons for Light-duty Vehicle Applications, Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-05-01, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, 2005. 

Darrow, K.G., Light Duty Vehicle Full Fuel Cycle Emissions Analysis Topical Report, Gas Research Institute Report GRI-93/0472 (1994)... 

Europe has an agreement with automakers that would reduce the C02 emitted per mile by 25% from 1996 to 2008 for light duty vehicles, which would result in an average fuel efficiency of about 40 mpg. Japan has a similar goal. 

Fleet use is one strategy for alternative fuel commercialization. It was the main strategy that the DOE used in the 1990s to meet the goals of the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Vehicle fleets are typically driven twice as many miles compared to private vehicles and make up about one fourth of all U.S. light-duty vehicle sales. Many fleet vehicles have fixed daily routes and are regularly fueled at one location, so less infrastructure is needed to support fleet-based vehicles. 

The federal Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 appear to be working. In the 1990s, Tier 1 standards greatly reduced tailpipe emissions of new light-duty vehicles which includes cars and most sport utility vehicles. 

Table 14.4 displays the initial market penetration of all hydrogen vehicles -passenger cars, light-duty vehicles and buses - for the Reference scenario relative to the estimated development of the total vehicle stock as well as the shares of the hydrogen vehicle drive trains, i.e., fuel cells and internal combustion engines. 

Figure 15.10. Millions of light-duty vehicles in the US fleet.

Kromer, M. A. and Heywood, J. B. (2007). Electric Powertrains Opportunities and Challenges in the US Light-Duty Vehicle Fleet. MIT Report. LFEE 2007-02 RP. 

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