Integrated photovoltaics potential for passenger car : a focus on the sensitivity to electrical architecture losses

International audienceTo reduce greenhouse emissions and improve primary energy saving, vehicle integrated pho-tovoltaics have an ongoing interest. Therefore, we developed a simulation tool of the mileage covered by VIPV. This tool considers various use profiles, different characteristics of the vehicles and of the PV system and all the losses that may decrease energy yield. Focusing on passenger car, simulations show that many parameters influence the outputs of the model, mainly: geo-graphic location, shading losses, thresholds due to extra-consumption to charge the vehicle bat-tery from PV and frequency of recharge with the grid. With projections of the technology in 2030, with 30 % shading losses, VIPV cover up to 1444 km annual mileage. This represents up to 12 % of the total distance. For the best month, it can get up to 14 km/day. For average Europe and worst-case conditions, the VIPV cover only 293 km annual mileage. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of solarized passenger car shows negative balance for low-carbon electricity mix. The carbon footprint is up to 489 kg CO2-equivalent avoided emissions on 13 years lifespan in fa-vorable conditions. Beyond km and LCA focus, VIPV could provide useful functions in non-interconnected zones and for resilience in case of climatic catastrophes