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Abstract Widespread adoption of alternative fuel vehicles in the heavy-duty transportation sector could significantly mitigate carbon emissions of this important sector. However, the extent of emission reductions and their feasibility will depend on the carbon intensity of the electricity system, alternative fuel vehicle technologies and vehicle charging profiles. Utilizing a capacity expansion and dispatch model, this study compares alternative pathways for decarbonizing the electricity and heavy duty transportation sector to 2060. Scenarios with battery electric vehicles, with three alternative charging profiles, and fuel cell vehicles are compared with 0 and 150 $/tCO 2 carbon taxes. Results show that adoption of alternative fuel vehicles in the absence of carbon taxes leads to, in the best case, cumulative emission reductions of 3% relative to a reference scenario due to the reliance on natural gas generation. In scenarios with a tax of 150$/tCO 2e , results show that adoption of fuel cell vehicles achieves the highest emission reduction of all studied scenarios with cumulative reductions of 43% from the reference scenario and the lowest carbon abatement cost, at 15.2 $/tCO 2e. The flexibility of electrolysers allows low cost renewable energy to be stored as hydrogen thereby avoiding investment in higher cost and higher emitting technologies. Highlights • Use of fuel cell vehicles leads to lower system carbon abatement cost than battery electric vehicles. • Electrolysers lead to higher penetration of renewable energy in electricity system. • Hydrogen storage used for seasonal storage of solar energy. • Electrification of heavy duty vehicles leads to little benefits without additional policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Abatement cost of electrification of road vehicle fleet range from 14 to 21 $/tCO 2e. • Electricity cost is up to 9% higher in scenarios with transport electrification. • Eliminating renewable target negates 60% of GHG benefits of transport electrification. • Use of UCC in half of available fleet may decrease generation capacity needs by 7%. To mitigate emissions from the electricity and transportation sectors, large scale deployment of renewable energy generators and battery electric vehicles are expected in the coming decades. However, adoption of these technologies may exacerbate issues related to mismatch of electricity supply and demand. In this study, we utilize a hybrid capacity expansion and dispatch model to quantify grid impacts of the conversion of the entire road vehicle fleet to electric vehicles by 2050. We examine impacts of policies, such as targeting a renewable energy penetration of 93%, using British Columbia as a case study. Scenarios making use of utility controlled charging of vehicles to balance supply and demand are further analyzed. Results show that although electrifying the entire road vehicle fleet will require generation capacity to increase by up to 60%, relative to a scenario without electrification, levelized cost of electricity only increases by 9% in the same scenario due to availability of low cost generation options such as wind and solar. We also find that a 93% renewable energy target leads to carbon abatement costs 30% lower than a scenario where this policy is removed. Further use of utility controlled charging reduces total system capacity up to 7%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]