A Charging Strategy for Large Commercial Electric Vehicle Fleets

Abstract

The popularity of Commercial Electric Vehicles (CEVs) has experienced a surge in recent years, particularly in urban vocational contexts, as a means of advancing towards the goal of attaining net-zero emissions by 2050. The return-to-base charging strategy, which involves charging CEVs at depots, has become a prevalent practice for smaller CEV fleets. Nevertheless, for larger CEV fleets, the limited charging capacity at depots presents a significant challenge, leading to a reliance on both limited depot charging infrastructure and public charging infrastructure. This reliance can have a substantial impact on both the operational costs and the sustainability of logistics services. To address these challenges, this study proposes a new charging strategy for managing the charging of large CEV fleets. The proposed strategy coordinates the charging of CEVs at depots and public charging stations. The strategy is formulated as a constraint optimization problem and takes into consideration operational schedules, demand charges, and the characteristics of public charging stations. The results of this study demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy in optimizing CEV charging at different stations, preserving the continuity of logistics services, and reducing total travel costs by 30% compared to existing solutions. This study offers a solution to the challenges faced by large CEV fleets in their efforts to achieve cost-effective and sustainable charging solutions.

Keywords

• Heavy commercial electric vehicles
• return-to-base
• transportation
• vehicle routing
• vehicle-to-grid
• optimization