Potentials of e-Mobility for Companies in Urban Areas

Abstract

Electric logistic concepts prove to be an inevitable trend for current challenges of city logistics. This seems to be a reverse development from combustion engines to electric drives and existing distribution policies. Within sustainable solutions the logistic sector needs to respond and perform their offered services to reflect new requirements and maintain quality of its services. It is possible to realize transports of goods without large trucks, especially in urban areas. Payloads and operation distances in this segment are low. Therefore, numerous light electric vehicles (“light urban vehicles” as e-trikes, “light duty vehicles” as light trucks, etc.) can be used. In some European cities emission-free last mile delivery services are already operational. For realizing sustainable city logistics, specific requirements need to be taken into account. Focusing on services for small quantities, requirements and solution concepts were investigated within the project “Urbane E-Lieferservices” (Modellregion für Elektromobilität Graz, Austria). After the introduction to the overall project, the content of this paper focuses on two investigated areas: first, we display a survey about specific requirements for urban e-based logistic concepts for SME in Graz. After that, we explain the related testing campaign for e-based logistic services. Finally, we add a summary and outlook.