IntelliShare, the joint research project between the University of California, Riverside's (UCR) College of Engineering Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT) and Honda will continue to run for another year.
IntelliShare uses the sophisticated smart card technology system which gives users keyless access to one of 15 EV PLUS vehicles at three station locations. Since IntelliShare launched in March, the number of users -- a mix of UCR students, faculty and staff -- has grown to about 200. On average, 100 trips are taken each day, with most less than four miles in length.
"Our goal for next year is to expand the program to 300 users making up to 200 trips a day," said Michael Todd, development engineer, CE-CERT. "We are making improvements as a result of the data we've collected over the past six months. Many people are waiting to become users, so reaching our goals looks very promising."
Among the logistic challenges IntelliShare faces is having enough vehicles at each port. Various methods to relocate the vehicles have been tried. Researchers found that the best method is where an operator drives an EV PLUS to a port where it is needed and returns riding a lightweight Honda scooter that is carried on the rear of the EV PLUS.
IntelliShare researchers plan to continue the simulation analysis of the system, evaluate the energy consumption of the system, determine the benefits of the electric-vehicle based system and explore advanced system operations such as customer demand prediction, intelligent relocation analysis and potential for customer reservations.
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| To relocate vehicles, an IntelliShare operator can drive an EV PLUS and an additional car, then return riding a Honda scooter. |