Alternative Light-Duty Vehicles: 

The Role of Infrastructure

6th Annual OPIS LCFS & Carbon Markets Workshop

December 8th, 2017

San Francisco, California

NREL/PR-5400-70594

Matteo Muratori
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Transportation is dominated by petroleum and personal vehicles
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Several alternative fuel vehicles are proposed for the future

Source: Gearhart, Chris. (2016). Implications of sustainability for the United 

States light-duty transportation sector. MRS Energy & Sustainability V3 e8.
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Petroleum fuel refueling network:

• Approximately 130,000 convenience stores (2015 NACS Retail 

Fuels Report) sell liquid fuels to support the fleet of ~264M 

personal vehicles in the U.S.

• 1 station per ~2000 vehicles

Electricity and hydrogen networks:

• 0.6M PEVs served by ~16,000 public stations (not including 

residential plugs)

• At the end of 2016, 33 retail HRSs served approximately 1,000 

FCEVs in the United States

Infrastructure requirements
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To reach a competitive market, commercial alternative fuel 

station have to transition through a “valley of death”, as vehicle 

adoption increases and the network achieves good utilization 

levels and economies of scale.

Market for alternative fuel stations 

Melaina, M., Muratori, M., McLaren, J., & Schwabe, P. (2017). Investing in Alternative Fuel Infrastructure: Insights for California from Stakeholder 

Interviews (No. 17-05279).
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Plug-in Electric Vehicles: Infrastructure Requirements 

National Research Council. Overcoming barriers to deployment of plug-in electric vehicles. 

National Academies Press, 2015.

While the majority of 

plug-in electric vehicles 

charging is expected to 

come from residential 

plugs, a network of public 

stations is still required 

for those adopters that 

cannot reliably charge at 

home, to enable longdistance travel, and to 

cope with range anxiety
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Plug-in Electric Vehicles: Infrastructure Requirements 

A recent EERE report from NREL shows that about 8,100 DCFC 

stations are required to provide a minimum level of nationwide 

coverage in the communities where 81% of people live.

Wood, Eric W., Clement L. Rames, Matteo Muratori, Seshadri Srinivasa Raghavan, and Marc W. Melaina. National Plug-In Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Analysis. No. NREL/TP5400-69031; DOE/GO-102017-5040. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States), 2017.
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Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles: Infrastructure Requirements 

FCEV would require a network of refueling stations similar to the 

“gasoline model”. A recent H2USA report from NREL shows how 

many stations are needed to support 60M FCEVs

Melaina, M., B. Bush, M. Muratori, J. Zuboy and S. Ellis, 2017. National Hydrogen Scenarios: How Many Stations, Where, and When? Prepared 

by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory for the H2 USA Locations Roadmap Working Group. 
Thank you!

More info: Matteo.Muratori@NREL.gov

This work was authored by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, operated by 

Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under 

Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308. Funding provided by the California Energy 

Commission's Energy Resources Program Account (ERPA). The views expressed in the 

article do not necessarily represent the views of the DOE or the U.S. Government. The 

U.S. Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, 

acknowledges that the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, 

worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this work, or allow others 

to do so, for U.S. Government purposes.