An Assessment of the Impact of Using Larger EV Battery Capacity on the Demand Load Profile of Mauritius

One of the main barriers to the penetration of electric vehicles in the landscape of big countries is the range anxiety. In fact, improving the battery capacity of EVs remains the main focus of many vehicle manufacturers. The increase in the battery density of Li Ion for instance, has been remarkable over the last ten years. However, the concern for small islands is not the same as for big countries since the average commute distance is relatively small. The problem faced by countries like Mauritius island is that the price of the EV is high due to size of the battery and secondly the payload of the vehicle is reduced due to its weight especially for public transport vehicles. In this research work, we compare the performance of Nissan Leaf generations from 2010 to 2019 from an efficiency perspective. Results show that for a typical drive cycle in Mauritius, there is only a slight increase in efficiency from 0.197 kW /km for the Leaf 2010 to 0.192 kW /km for the Leaf 2019 in spite of an increase in range from 175 km to 385 km. The subsequent increase in battery capacity of EV s also stresses the power grid since more powerful chargers are required. For an optimistic uptake of EV s in Mauritius by 2030, it is observed that a 40 % increase in the peak demand occurs if overnight charging is favoured by EV owners. A proper contingency planning is therefore required for EV charging in the long run.