The Impact of Charging Electric Vehicles Between Routing Instances

Abstract

E-mobility, in particular electric vehicles (EVs), play a crucial role in the energy transition. While businesses are increasingly adopting EVs, there is still a lot of opportunity to grow. One aspect of this growth is the way these vehicles are used by companies, especially when it comes to the logistics of EV charging. To encourage companies to further reduce their carbon footprint by more efficiently utilizing EVs, this project proposes a combined vehicle routing and charging model. These models can be used separately, as well as together, allowing the charging model to be combined with any pre-existing routing engine. The goal of this project is to show the benefits of allowing EVs to be charged between shifts during the day, rather than exclusively overnight, as well as to show how such schedules can be made. Our results show that giving vehicles the opportunity to charge between shifts can significantly reduce the costs associated with fleet operations. If the fleet contains non-electric vehicles as well as electric ones, we also see a significant reduction in the number of kilometers driven using fossil fuels. When sufficient chargers were available, even when the vehicles had little time to charge, a feasible schedule could always be found. Moreover, when more realistic charging intervals were used, most vehicles were even able to fully recharge before the start of their next shift. Finally, we concluded that the set of chargers needed to find such a feasible schedule can be relatively small, meaning that even without extensive additions to the charging infrastructure, companies can still benefit from this policy change.