LAUSR

Abstract Energy and transport must lead the transition to a low-carbon economy, weaning their dependence on fossil fuels via massive renewable generation and electrification of transport. A major challenge is the power system imbalance between generation and demand due to the higher fraction of non-dispatchable renewable generation such as solar photovoltaic or wind. Electric mobility will lean heavily on the power system but may contribute to mitigate the imbalance problem. This work focuses precisely on the impact of different models for future road mobility in a decarbonized power system, ranking the merits of each solution. The models considered are plug-in, plug-in and catenaries, plug-in and hydrogen, and battery swapping. We show that battery swapping, the least studied model so far, is superior to the other three in all semi-quantitative criteria of merit. We conclude our analysis with implications for energy policy and examples of public policies that could boost the adoption of this model, which has huge implications both for the mobility industry and for power systems.