Abstract:

Electric vehicles have shown to be a feasible mobility option that reduces emissions and hence contributes to the transportation sector's decarbonization. Vehicle fleets are a promising starting point for increased market penetration. With this study, the authors address the issue of fleet electrification by analyzing a data set of 81 empirical mobility patterns of commercial fleets. The authors conduct a simulation to design a decision support system for fleet managers evaluating which fleets have a good potential for electrification and how fleets can improve the number of successful electric trips by adapting their charging strategy. They consider both heuristics and optimized scheduling. The results show that a large share of fleets can score a close to optimal charging schedule using a simple charging heuristic. For all other fleets, the authors provide a decision mechanism to assess the potential of smart charging mechanisms.