Life-cycle oriented decision support for the planning of fleets with alternative powertrain vehicles

Abstract

Corporate fleets are responsible for a large number of economic and environmental impacts. At the same time especially the introduction of alternative powertrain vehicles requires new life-cycle oriented approaches in corporate fleet planning. Here the complexity increases significantly as the vehicle characteristics are much more diverse compared to having only conventional vehicles. Furthermore, their economic and environmental impacts are related to different life-cycle phases of fleets. Thus, this paper provides a systematic decision support that allows for a life-cycle oriented evaluation of vehicle concepts according to the requirements of corporate fleet applications. To this end, the research background, the general approach and a case study are presented. The results are discussed comprehensively and suggestions for further research are given.