Vehicle routing for fleets with electric- and combustion-powered vehicles

Abstract

Optimal transportation plans for fleets with electric-powered vehicles (EPVs) differ substantially from plans generated for fleets with combustion-powered vehicles (CPVs). The main reasons for this difference are the reduced range and payload of EPVs (compared to CPVs) as well as their increased efficiency. In this paper, transportation plans for CPVs and EPVs which must not be recharged during route fulfillment are analyzed by computational experiments. The advantages of CPVs with respect to totally driven distances, number of used vehicles and the ability to generate feasible plans are opposed to the advantages of EPVs with respect to CO2 emissions. Additionally it is shown that the specific drawbacks of CPVs and EPVs can be mitigated by exploiting the flexibility of a fleet which is composed of both, EPVs and CPVs.