Exploring the role of electric vehicles in Africa's energy transition: A Nigerian case study

We employed a bottom-up modeling framework to examine a set of scenarios to generate insights on the techno-economic and environmental implications of increasing levels of electric vehicle (EV) penetration using Nigeria as a case study. Results indicate that, despite Nigeria having a natural gas-dominated electricity system, the deployment of EVs can support the decarbonization of the transportation and power sectors but at a relatively high cost. The cost of EVs would need to drop by ∼40% to become cost-competitive. However, if variable renewable energy sources deliver the EVs power requirement with a bidirectional vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging strategy, then the cost of EVs would need to decline by only ∼30%. Not all EVs need to participate in a V2G charging strategy in order to realize the full benefits of the strategy. Expanding renewables capacity leads to additional reduction in CO(2) emission and decarbonization cost but at different magnitudes based on the charging strategy.