IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cdl/itsdav/qt8ng1g4rf.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Refueling Availability for Alternative Fuel Vehicle Markets: Sufficient Urban Station Coverage

Author

Listed:
  • Melaina, Marc W
  • Bremson, Joel

Abstract

Alternative fuel vehicles can play an important role in addressing the challenges of climate change, energy security, urban air pollution and the continued growth in demand for transportation services. The successful commercialization of alternative fuels for vehicles is contingent upon a number of factors, including vehicle cost and performance. Among fuel infrastructure issues, adequate refueling availability is one of the most fundamental to successful commercialization. A commonly cited source reports 164,300 refueling stations in operation nationwide. However, from the perspective of refueling availability, this nationwide count tends to overstate the number of stations required to support the widespread deployment of alternative fuel vehicles. In terms of spatial distribution, the existing gasoline station networks in many urban areas are more than sufficient. We characterize a sufficient level of urban coverage based upon a subset of cities served by relatively low-density station networks, and estimate that some 51,000 urban stations would be required to provide this sufficient level of coverage to all major urban areas, 33 percent less than our estimate of total urban stations. This improved characterization will be useful for engineering, economic and policy analyses.

Suggested Citation

  • Melaina, Marc W & Bremson, Joel, 2008. "Refueling Availability for Alternative Fuel Vehicle Markets: Sufficient Urban Station Coverage," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt8ng1g4rf, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt8ng1g4rf
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/8ng1g4rf.pdf;origin=repeccitec
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Goldemberg, Jose & Coelho, Suani Teixeira & Lucon, Oswaldo, 2004. "How adequate policies can push renewables," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1141-1146, June.
    2. Yeh, Sonia, 2007. "An empirical analysis on the adoption of alternative fuel vehicles: The case of natural gas vehicles," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 5865-5875, November.
    3. Greene, David L. & Patterson, Philip D. & Singh, Margaret & Li, Jia, 2005. "Feebates, rebates and gas-guzzler taxes: a study of incentives for increased fuel economy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 757-775, April.
    4. Greene, David L. & Patterson, Philip D. & Singh, Margaret & Li, Jia, 2005. "Corrigendum to "Feebates, rebates and gas-guzzler taxes: a study of incentives for increased fuel economy" [Energy Policy 33 (2005) 757-775]," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(14), pages 1901-1902, September.
    5. Barron, John M. & Taylor, Beck A. & Umbeck, John R., 2004. "Number of sellers, average prices, and price dispersion," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(8-9), pages 1041-1066, November.
    6. Nesbitt, Kevin & Sperling, Daniel, 1998. "Myths Regarding Alternative Fuel Vehicle Demand by Light-Duty Vehicle Fleets," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt0q6053j9, University of California Transportation Center.
    7. Melaina, Marc W, 2007. "Turn of the century refueling: A review of innovations in early gasoline refueling methods and analogies for hydrogen," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt8501255w, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    8. Melaina, Marc W., 2007. "Turn of the century refueling: A review of innovations in early gasoline refueling methods and analogies for hydrogen," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 4919-4934, October.
    9. Flynn, Peter C., 2002. "Commercializing an alternate vehicle fuel: lessons learned from natural gas for vehicles," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(7), pages 613-619, June.
    10. Yeh, Sonia, 2007. "An empirical analysis on the adoption of alternative fuel vehicles:The case of natural gas vehicles," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt2k09h787, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    11. Yeh, Sonia, 2007. "An empirical analysis on the adoption of alternative fuel vehicles:The case of natural gas vehicles," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt92h7g194, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    12. Andrea Shepard, 1993. "Contractual Form, Retail Price, and Asset Characteristics in Gasoline Retailing," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 24(1), pages 58-77, Spring.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Melaina, Marc & Bremson, Joel, 2008. "Refueling availability for alternative fuel vehicle markets: Sufficient urban station coverage," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 3223-3231, August.
    2. Larizzatti Zacharias, Luis Guilherme & Antunes Costa de Andrade, Ana Clara & Guichet, Xavier & Mouette, Dominique & Peyerl, Drielli, 2022. "Natural gas as a vehicular fuel in Brazil: Barriers and lessons to learn," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    3. Sierzchula, William & Bakker, Sjoerd & Maat, Kees & van Wee, Bert, 2014. "The influence of financial incentives and other socio-economic factors on electric vehicle adoption," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 183-194.
    4. Wiedmann, Klaus-Peter & Hennigs, Nadine & Pankalla, Lars & Kassubek, Martin & Seegebarth, Barbara, 2011. "Adoption barriers and resistance to sustainable solutions in the automotive sector," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(11), pages 1201-1206.
    5. Adrián Saldarriaga-Isaza, C. & Vergara, Carlos, 2009. "Who switches to hybrids? A study of a fuel conversion program in Colombia," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 43(5), pages 572-579, June.
    6. Barter, Garrett E. & Reichmuth, David & Westbrook, Jessica & Malczynski, Leonard A. & West, Todd H. & Manley, Dawn K. & Guzman, Katherine D. & Edwards, Donna M., 2012. "Parametric analysis of technology and policy tradeoffs for conventional and electric light-duty vehicles," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 473-488.
    7. Malakoutirad, Mohammad & Bradley, Thomas H. & Hagen, Chris, 2015. "Design considerations for an engine-integral reciprocating natural gas compressor," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 129-137.
    8. Wang, Hongxia & Fang, Hong & Yu, Xueying & Wang, Ke, 2015. "Development of natural gas vehicles in China: An assessment of enabling factors and barriers," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 80-93.
    9. Zhang, Yong & Yu, Yifeng & Zou, Bai, 2011. "Analyzing public awareness and acceptance of alternative fuel vehicles in China: The case of EV," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 7015-7024.
    10. Imran Khan, Muhammad, 2017. "Policy options for the sustainable development of natural gas as transportation fuel," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 126-136.
    11. Shepherd, Simon & Bonsall, Peter & Harrison, Gillian, 2012. "Factors affecting future demand for electric vehicles: A model based study," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 62-74.
    12. Ravigné, E. & Da Costa, P., 2021. "Economic and environmental performances of natural gas for heavy trucks: A case study on the French automotive industry supply chain," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    13. Kelley, Scott & Kuby, Michael, 2013. "On the way or around the corner? Observed refueling choices of alternative-fuel drivers in Southern California," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 258-267.
    14. Thamsiriroj, T. & Smyth, H. & Murphy, J.D., 2011. "A roadmap for the introduction of gaseous transport fuel: A case study for renewable natural gas in Ireland," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(9), pages 4642-4651.
    15. Tianbo Wang & Lanchun Zhang & Qian Chen, 2020. "Effect of Valve Opening Manner and Sealing Method on the Steady Injection Characteristic of Gas Fuel Injector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-12, March.
    16. Petschnig, Martin & Heidenreich, Sven & Spieth, Patrick, 2014. "Innovative alternatives take action – Investigating determinants of alternative fuel vehicle adoption," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 68-83.
    17. Akoh Fabien Yao & Maxime Sèbe & Laura Recuero Virto & Abdelhak Nassiri & Hervé Dumez, 2024. "The effect of LNG bunkering on port competitiveness using multilevel data analysis [L'effet du soutage par GNL sur la compétitivité des ports à l'aide de l'analyse de données à plusieurs niveaux]," Post-Print hal-04611804, HAL.
    18. Kagiri, Charles & Wanjiru, Evan M. & Zhang, Lijun & Xia, Xiaohua, 2018. "Optimized response to electricity time-of-use tariff of a compressed natural gas fuelling station," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 244-256.
    19. Nithin Isaac & Akshay Kumar Saha, 2022. "Predicting Vehicle Refuelling Trips through Generalised Poisson Modelling," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-18, September.
    20. Ogunlowo, Olufemi O. & Bristow, Abigail L. & Sohail, M., 2017. "A stakeholder analysis of the automotive industry's use of compressed natural gas in Nigeria," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 58-69.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    UCD-ITS-RP-08-33; Engineering;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt8ng1g4rf. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Lisa Schiff (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/itucdus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.