Founders’ Honors

Southern Brazil needed a charging network capable of supporting medium- and long-distance electric vehicle travel, but delivering that vision required solving a complex planning challenge. Future demand had to be modeled across 94 micro-regions and three adoption scenarios, while changing battery costs and vehicle range introduced additional uncertainty. Working on behalf of Banco Interamericano de Desenvolvimento (BID), the consortium of TTC Engenharia de Trafego e de Transportes (TTC) integrated data from three energy concessionaires to evaluate medium- and low-voltage grid impacts. Traditional spreadsheets and static analysis could not provide the insight needed to determine where charging infrastructure would be most needed or economically viable.

Using OpenPaths Emme, the team developed a macro-scale traffic model calibrated against highway counts, creating a data-driven foundation for long-term planning. The analysis mapped 50-kilometer charging windows against projected vehicle range and identified locations for 30 fast-charging stations, rated 50 to 100 kilowatts, by 2040. The planning study projects a 24% internal rate of return and BRL 290 million net present value, while indicating that replacing 10.9% of the light vehicle fleet could reduce annual carbon emissions by 2.7 million metric tons. The project established a roadmap for accelerating electric vehicle adoption across southern Brazil.