Tools for TCO Calculation
Introduction
For an economic optimization of the fleet, a comprehensive and correct overview of the Total Cost of Ownership analysis is essential. However, producing reliable Total Cost of Ownership calculations for real-world comparisons of electric vehicles prior to purchase is challenging. Faced with this difficulty in working out the Total Cost of Ownership of various possibilities, tools listed here provide a selection of calculation tools, ranging from easy to use tools that allow a quick estimation of the total cost of owning a vehicle to more sophisticated tools, which include parameters like air temperature and customised routing decisions.
Objectives
The purpose of the tool is to enable assessment of mixed electric fleet ownership from a Total Cost of Ownership perspective.
Benefits for Users
Stochastic Fleet Mix Optimizer provides the user with necessary tools to determine the optimal fleet mix of electric and conventional vehicles that may operate on specific tasks characterized by various locations, time windows, demand quantities, service time durations and compatibility with drivers.
Description of the tool
The tool analyzes the company driving requirements and minimizes the total cost of ownership over a time horizon with the vehicles operating on a given number of days per year. The Total Cost of Ownership is calculated here as the sum of operational cost (routing, maintenance, insurance, driver wages, etc.) and acquisition cost (with tax).
Data Requirements
The tool requires information about the engine and battery characteristics of the considered vehicle types and the seasonal outside temperature. Historical data from the company is required to analyse driving patterns and transport demands. Traffic data and road elevation can also be considered by the tool.
Contact
Assoc. Prof. Dario Pacino
DTU Management, Technical University of Denmark
Objectives
The strategy change from personally dedicated vehicles to vehicle pooling in commercial fleets will be a major step to reduce environmental effects of commercially initiated mobility and transport. The VECEPT fleet management software system aims at supporting decision makers when deciding on their fleet configuration.
Benefits for users
The fleet management tool graphically presents a set of comparable solutions, enabling users to choose the fleet composition which best fits their preferences for cost and CO2 emissions. For each solution detailed decisions about purchase and sale of vehicles are given over a specified time horizon.
Decision makers can then choose the solution which best fits their preferences out of this whole set. This means that no priorities for one or the other objective need to be specified beforehand, but fleet compositions and detailed solutions can be compared visually and in detail.
Description of Tool
The VECEPT fleet management tool can be applied to determine optimised strategies for the gradual introduction of plug-in hybrid vehicles and battery electric vehicles into existing (conventional) fleets. Incorporating basic data into the existing vehicle fleet and respecting the daily mobility requirements of the users, optimised solutions with respect to cost and CO2 emissions are computed. Via the generation of scenarios, users can specify their assumptions of future developments, e.g. regarding demand, energy or fuel cost, etc. This feature also allows users to determine requirements for charging infrastructure. An estimation on the number of charging stations can be introduced as scenario input. According to the coverage of charging infrastructure, the proposed fleet composition will vary with respect to the percentage of conventional, electric vehicles. Since the fleet management tool allows users to interact instantaneously, different potential coverage values can be assumed and their effects on the fleet composition can be evaluated.
Data Requirements
Fleet optimization relies on information about the fleet’s daily operations including the required number and type of cars, the expected number and length of trips, and opportunities to recharge a car’s batteries between trips. This information can be extracted from vehicle logbooks and GPS loggers, if available, in order to alleviate the burden on the fleet operator, who would otherwise have to provide this information manually.
Objectives
The Electric Vehicle Decision Support Model aims to retrieve data for a full understanding about economic conditions regarding the uptake of electric mobility in selected countries of the European Union.
Benefits for Users
The advantage of the tool for the user is that in just a few steps, decision support is given for the economic suitability of battery electric commercial vehicles for an individually defined transport task. The decision is based on a comparison of the total operating costs of the vehicles.
Description of the Tool
The Electric Vehicle Decision Support Model is a web-based tool for calculating the Total Cost of Ownership of battery electric vehicles compared to conventional vehicles (diesel or gasoline powered). The tool differentiates between vehicles of different car and truck classes as well as different ownership types. The calculation takes into account the national tax and price systems and the individual driving profile of the user. Currently, the Total Cost of Ownership calculation is possible for vehicles in Germany and will be extended to the Netherlands, Denmark, Hungary and Sweden.
Data Requirements
For the Total Cost of Ownership calculation with the Electric Vehicle Decision Support Model, information on the vehicle to be replaced (or a reference vehicle) is required. This includes the vehicle model, the purchase costs, the mileage and the holding period. More detailed calculations are possible with an expert tool of the Decision Support Model, where further inputs of the model are necessary.
Objectives
The objective of the basic total cost of ownership (TCO) tool is to allow fleet managers to compare investment in one or several diesel or gasoline powered freight vehicles against an equivalent battery electric alternative. The tool is based on the insights from case study and includes factors which are found relevant to the cost realizations in real life.
Benefits for Users
The tool allows fleet managers to roughly estimate the TCO of freight vehicles, over a range of parameters including annual usage, vehicle capacity, battery capacity, fuel type, and expected cost/fuel price trends. It is MS Excel based, easy to use and install.
Description of the tool
Developed during the EUFAL project, by Borusan Logistics and Istanbul Technical University, the goal of this basic tool is to help fleet managers which are at the early stage of EFV adoption, to make a general comparison between combustion and electric vehicles. This easy-to-use tool allows a quick estimation of the total cost of owning a freight vehicle during a specified period of life time, including the purchase and usage costs. The tool allows a comparison of up to 3 vehicles at a time, providing some graphics for an instant comparison.
Some default parameters are assigned but the user may also define its own vehicle types and assign relevant parameters.
It requires just four simple steps:
- Select vehicle type (the user can see and update the details of vehicle types at 'Vehicle Type' sheet).
- Enter the following information of the vehicle chosen
- Select fuel type.
- The tool gives the estimated TCO of each vehicle chosen.
Figure 1: TCO Comparator
Data Requirements
For each vehicle to be analysed:
- Average daily Milage (km)
- Expected Ownership Period (years)
- Purchasing Price (€)
- Expected End-of-life Salvage Value (€)
- Annual Maintenance & Service Cost per Vehicle (€)
- Maintenance Cost Trend (% change per year)
- Annual Insurance Cost per Vehicle (€)
- Insurance Cost Trend (% change per year)
- Average fuel consumption (lt/100km)
- Current Fuel Price (€/lt)
- Fuel Price Trend (projected % change per year)
- Battery Replacement Cost (€/kWh)
- Estimated Battery Cost Trend (% change per year)
- Expected Battery Life (Years)
- Battery efficiency (kWh/km)
- Current Electricty Price (€/kWh)
- Electricity Price Trend (% change per year)
- One Time Grants, Incentives, Rebates, etc (% of Purchasing Price)
- Annual Monetary Benefits (€ - Expected Average )
- Motor Vehicles Tax (%)
Suggested default values are given for all parameters 8-20, but the user may change the default values according to market conditions.
Downloads
Passenger Car TCO Calculator
The online Passenger Car Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Calculator Tool is commissioned by the European Copper Institute and developed by Logistics and Automotive Technology Research Centre (MOBI) at the Vrije University of Brussel. The goal of the tool is to help policy makers and consumer organisations to make a fair comparison between combustion and electric vehicles, to enable the design of incentive schemes for market uptake.
Evenergi - Total cost of ownership engine
The Evenergi total cost of ownership engine was built with funding from Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), with input from several major automotive and energy groups. It aims to help consumers and fleet owners understand what it means to buy an electric vehicle and then power it with renewable energy sources. The tool’s total cost of ownership engine is customisable for automotive companies, energy retailers, energy distributors, and government agencies.
The Energy Efficiency Conversation Authority Total Cost of Ownership tool and EV life-cycle assessment
An online tool developed by Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority for comparing the Total Cost of Ownership of fleet vehicles. It allows the users to compare the total cost of owning and running electric, plug-in hybrid, petrol or diesel cars, and to customise the calculations to reflect the input costs and use patterns.
Electric Vehicle versus Petrol Car Calculator
Based on averaged values for a number of parameters, this tool provides a basic guide for comparing the vehicle technologies over time in terms of costs and predicts the future cost of electricity and petrol or diesel fuelled vehicles. The tool provides a comparison for both passenger and commercial vehicles.
North American Council for Freight Efficiency - Total cost of ownership calculator
The tool allows fleet owners to compare investment in one or several diesel or gasoline powered baseline freight vehicles against an equivalent battery electric alternative. The calculator includes a good collection of factors including driving speed and temperature.
https://nacfe.org/future-technology/medium-duty-electric-trucks-cost-of-ownership/