Staying One Step Ahead of the Growing Electric Vehicle Market

Author(s)

Russell MolterFollow

Abstract

Electric vehicles are becoming more popular among drivers as they become more affordable and as people become more aware of the benefits of electric vehicles. Because of this, the demand for electric car chargers is quickly increasing across the country. This includes BGSU’s campus. Right now, there are seven chargers available on campus, but with the trends in how the electric vehicle market is growing, BGSU should create a plan to install many more chargers to meet the increasing demand for charging stations. This strategy will allow BGSU to keep up with the growing electric vehicle market, which will additionally make BGSU more appealing to anyone using electric vehicles, such as students, staff, faculty, and people outside the BGSU community. It is important that BGSU responds to the growing market as soon as possible. This means costs to install more chargers will have to be analyzed, as well as where to place new chargers on campus and which types of chargers should be installed. BGSU must also work towards electrifying its university fleet¬¬—specifically, Campus Operations vehicles as they contribute the most vehicles to the university fleet. Therefore, I have analyzed purchasing and operating costs for relevant electric vehicles. The university would save money since gas is more expensive than electricity, and campus vehicles would be friendlier to the environment due to less greenhouse gas emissions. I also surveyed other university sustainability directors to see what other campuses are doing. It will take some time to install more chargers and electrify university vehicles, but a concrete plan to do so needs to be created, especially to satisfy BGSU’s goal to be carbon neutral by 2040. Some of my biggest suggestions to BGSU include investing in at least one electric vehicle now, installing more electric vehicle chargers, and performing the required trenching for electric vehicle charger wiring whenever parking lots are being dug up.

Department

Mathematics and Statistics

Major

Applied Mathematics

First Advisor

Dr. Craig Zirbel

First Advisor Department

Mathematics and Statistics

Second Advisor

Ina Terry

Second Advisor Department

Geology

Publication Date

Fall 12-12-2021

Repository Citation

Molter, Russell, "Staying One Step Ahead of the Growing Electric Vehicle Market" (2021). Honors Projects. 639.
https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/honorsprojects/639