LIFE CYCLE COST ANALYSIS OF ELECTRIC VEHICLE IN MACAU by Lai Chi Kin Thesis Supervisor: Ir Dr T.W. Ching Department of Electromechanical Engineering, University of Macau With the growing concerns on price fluctuation, depletion of petroleum resources and global warming, environmental and health concerns, there is fast growing interest in EVs in Macau and also a pressing need for researchers and power utilities to develop various infrastructures for EVs and strategies for adapting EVs. Being a city with small geographical size (29.5km2) limiting the travel range of vehicles, Macau has great potential for EV implementation. With an urbanized city and limited land space, Macau has been faced with problems of road congestion and rapid growth in car population. Air pollution is also another important concern. EVs provide low emission urban transportation. Even taking into account the emissions from power plants needed to fuel the vehicles, the use of EVs can reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions significantly. From the energy aspect, EVs are efficient and environmentally friendly. Thus, EVs are promising green vehicles that can reduce both energy consumptions and CO2 emissions. Electric vehicles (EVs) are clean due to their zero local emissions and low global emissions. They are also green due to their environmental friendliness, since electricity can be generated by renewable sources. Despite these obvious benefits, EVs have not been widely used around the world; the key reasons are due to their high price, short driving range or lack of charging facilities. The development of EVs has advanced rapidly over the past decades. Researchers/engineers have concentrated on the improvement of EV performance through the advances in batteries, motors, converters, controllers and relevant auxiliaries, with great successes. Now, it comes to the stage of commercialization! It is important to understand various cost issues and the business models relating to EV application. This paper aims to discuss the life cycle cost (LCC) of EV and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in Macau. Viability of EVs will be assessed by comparing LCCs of Mitsubishi i and its counterpart i-MiEV; their fuel consumption and emissions of EV will also be evaluated. It is the most expensive to pay upfront for acquiring an EV, but not the costs for operating and maintaining! To investigate the various costs and the future business models relating to EV application, it is proposed to evaluate the present value of total LCC of an EV and compare with ICE vehicles. Acquisition cost of EVs is high. However, EVs are more efficient than ICE vehicles, their operating and maintenance costs are also much lower. A LCC model has been developed to calculate the acquisition, operation and external costs of EVs and comparable ICE vehicles in Macau’s context. The present values of Government’s incentives, taxes, future interest rates, fuel costs, … etc. will be calculated to compare the LCC of an EV and its ICE counterpart.