Abstract:

Charging services play an important role in encouraging the electric freight vehicle (EFV) market growth. It is crucial to understand charging strategies and their influence on charging behavior in deploying charging services. Unfortunately, existing charging strategy definitions and types are incoherent and incomplete. This conceptual paper synthesizes the perspectives found in the literature on the charging strategy concept and provides a definition based on Orlikowski’s structurational model of technology. A two-level charging strategy typology is proposed. The first distinguishes between decision-making modes: schedule- or trigger-based decisions. The second identifies when and where charging is used during a vehicle operating cycle. The result is three schedule-based charging strategies: downtime, opportunity, and intrusive charging, and one trigger-based emergency charging. The selection of strategy depends on the EFV operations, the availability of charging systems and services, and the driver behaviour. The influence of the strategy on enhancing the EFV, the carrier operations, and the business model is discussed. Charging behaviour, especially in location and timing, strongly depends on the strategy. While downtime charging is considered the default strategy, carriers should employ a variety of complementary strategies to enhance the capability of their vehicles and improve the financial viability of the operations. Carriers should also have an emergency charging strategy on hand in unforeseen situations.