Electric vehicles in logistics and transportation: A survey on emerging environmental, strategic, and operational challenges
Current logistics and transportation (L&T) systems include heterogeneous fleets consisting of common internal combustion engine vehicles as well as other types of vehicles using 'green' technologies, e.g., plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and electric vehicles (EVs). However, the incor...
| Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | article |
| Status: | Published version |
| Publication Date: | 2016 |
| Country: | España |
| Institution: | Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) |
| Repository: | O2, repositorio institucional de la UOC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:openaccess.uoc.edu:10609/83125 |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10609/83125 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | electric vehicles logistics and transportation green vehicle routing problems vehículos eléctricos logística y transporte problemas de enrutamiento de vehículos verdes vehicles elèctrics logística i transport problemes d'enrutament de vehicles verds Physical distribution of goods Electric vehicles Distribució de mercaderies Vehicles elèctrics Distribución de mercancías Vehículos eléctricos |
| Summary: | Current logistics and transportation (L&T) systems include heterogeneous fleets consisting of common internal combustion engine vehicles as well as other types of vehicles using 'green' technologies, e.g., plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and electric vehicles (EVs). However, the incorporation of EVs in L&T activities also raise some additional challenges from the strategic, planning, and operational perspectives. For instance, smart cities are required to provide recharge stations for electric-based vehicles, meaning that investment decisions need to be made about the number, location, and capacity of these stations. Similarly, the limited driving-range capabilities of EVs, which are restricted by the amount of electricity stored in their batteries, impose non-trivial additional constraints when designing efficient distribution routes. Accordingly, this paper identifies and reviews several open research challenges related to the introduction of EVs in L&T activities, including: (a) environmental-related issues; and (b) strategic, planning and operational issues associated with 'standard' EVs and with hydrogen-based EVs. The paper also analyzes how the introduction of EVs in L&T systems generates new variants of the well-known Vehicle Routing Problem, one of the most studied optimization problems in the L&T field, and proposes the use of metaheuristics and simheuristics as the most efficient way to deal with these complex optimization problems. |
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