Use Of Battery Electric Vehicles Research Articles

Green light for bidirectional charging? Unveiling grid repercussions and life cycle impacts

Bidirectional charging, such as Vehicle-to-Grid, is increasingly seen as a way to integrate the growing number of battery electric vehicles into the energy system. The electrical storage capacity in the system can be enhanced by using electric vehicles as flexible storage units. However, large-scale applications of Vehicle-to-Grid may require significant expansion of distribution grids. Previous studies lack a comprehensive environmental assessment of related impacts. Contributing to this research gap, this article combines techno-economic grid simulations with scenario-based Life Cycle Assessments. The case study focuses on rural distribution grids in Southern Germany, projecting the repercussions of different charging scenarios by 2040. Besides a Vehicle-to-Grid scenario, a mixed scenario of Vehicle-to-Home, Vehicle-to-Grid, and direct charging is investigated. Results indicate that Vehicle-to-Grid charging increases grid impacts due to higher charging simultaneities and power losses, especially when following spot market prices. Despite these challenges, the secondary use of battery electric vehicles as storage units can offset adverse environmental effects. Bidirectional charging allows for higher use of volatile renewable energies and can accelerate their integration into the power system. When considering these diverse environmental effects, bidirectional charging scenarios show overall lower impacts on climate change per battery electric vehicle compared to direct charging. The insights provided are valuable for researchers, industry, utilities, and policymakers to understand the potential positive and negative impacts of large-scale battery electric vehicle integration. The article highlights the most influential parameters that should be considered before large-scale penetration.

Customer satisfaction leading the intention to adopt battery electric vehicles with the moderating role of government support and status symbol

In response to the ongoing efforts to reduce pollution, the Chinese government is encouraging the use of battery electric vehicles (BEVs). People in China as a whole intend to supplement the government's initiative. Thus, this study aims to determine adoption intention for BEVs through environmental concerns, technophilia, social norms, price and battery cost, self-esteem, range confidence, satisfaction toward adopting BEV, financial incentives, non-financial policies, and status symbol by using the theory of planned behavior (TPB). PLS-SEM was followed, and data was collected through questionnaires using purposive sampling. A total of 508 questionnaires were used in the final analysis. Multiple regression was used for hypotheses testing. Environmental concerns, technophilia, social norms, self-esteem, and range confidence significantly enhance satisfaction toward adopting BEVs. Meanwhile, price and battery cost significantly decrease customer satisfaction towards adopting BEVs. Satisfaction towards adopting BEVs, government support (i.e., financial incentives, non-financial policies), and status symbols are leading to the intention to adopt BEVs. Government support is significantly moderate, but the status symbol does not moderate between satisfaction towards adopting BEVs and adoption intention for BEVs. This research suggests that policymakers and manufacturers focus on studying factors determining the intention to adopt BEVs. This initial research integrates environmental concerns, technophilia, social norms, price and battery cost, self-esteem, range confidence, satisfaction towards adopting BEVs, financial incentives, non-financial policies, status symbol, and adoption intention for BEVs in a single framework in light of TPB.

Field Trials and Fire Safety of Battery Electric Vehicles in Underground Mines: A current snapshot of the advantages and challenges of the use of battery electric vehicles in underground mines

Field Trials and Fire Safety of Battery Electric Vehicles in Underground Mines: A current snapshot of the advantages and challenges of the use of battery electric vehicles in underground mines

Vehicle-to-Grid Power in Danish Electric Power Systems

The integration of renewable energy systems is often constrained by the variable nature of their output. This demands for the services of storing the electricity generated from most of the renewable energy sources. Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) power could use the inherent energy storage of electric vehicles and its quick response time to balance and stabilize a power system with fluctuating power. This paper outlines the use of battery electric vehicles in supporting large-scale integration of renewable energy in the Danish electric power systems. The reserve power requirements for a high renewable energy penetration could be met by an amount of V2G based electric vehicles less than 10% of the total vehicle need in Denmark. The participation of electric vehicle in ancillary services would earn significant revenues to the vehicle owner. The power balancing services of electric vehicles in an electricity network with a large variable renewable generation in Denmark seems feasible and realistic.

Adopting electric bus for improving efficiency in the local public transport sector: Analysis of facilitating conditions and their nonlinear relationships

Zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) are technological innovations that have the potential to strengthen efficiency and sustainability improvement within the transportation sector. However, privately owned local bus transport firms lack the resources to make ZEVs especially Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) easily accessible for their logistics services. Therefore, this study proposes to pave the way for technological transformation in the public transport (PT) sector by exploring how these local bus businesses can facilitate the sustained use of BEVs in order to establish a better efficiency from their services. Specifically, the critical facilitating conditions for adopting batter-electric buses (BEBs) in privately owned local PT companies were obtained using Fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (Fuzzy DEMATEL) while their nonlinear relationships of importance levels were predicted using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference systems (ANFIS). A system dynamics model was proposed that illustrates the dynamic nonlinear relationships of the multiple effects of these conditions on transport efficiency (TE). Based on empirical evidence in Nigeria, the proposed methods were verified and the study results predict that government support, affordable electricity tariffs, access to electric minibuses and presence of charging infrastructure are foremost in boosting the sustained use of BEBs in the local PT sector. Meanwhile, government support improves TE more quickly in a short period while presence of charging infrastructure, affordable electricity tariffs and access to electric minibuses are more effective for stimulating TE over a longer period. This study has implications for decision makers and policy makers that design strategies for BEB adoption to improve TE in the local public transport sector.

The psychological, human factors and socio-technical contribution: A systematic review towards range anxiety of battery electric vehicles’ drivers

The use of Battery Electric Vehicles is one of the biggest transformations in the field of sustainable development, holding the potential to address many sustainability challenges. Despite their high energy efficiency, the utilisation of these vehicles remains largely underexplored due to several factors. One of the prominent factors is the phenomenon of range anxiety (RA). This review aims to provide an overview of the range anxiety phenomenon, identifying its primary influencing variables and strategies for mitigating it. The review places particular emphasis on the methodologies and tools employed for assessing range anxiety and related factors.Following PRISMA guidelines, a systematic search was performed in PubMed, Scopus, and APA PsycInfo, using the following keywords: “range” AND (“stress” OR “anxiety”) AND ALL (“electric” AND “vehicle”). The protocol was registered with OSF, registration number is https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/FN4VW. The articles were selected by two independent authors. The methodological quality and risk of bias were assessed.A total of 17 studies were included in the systematic review. Studies were analysed by sample size, conceptual framework, assessment method and results. The findings highlight that an approach grounded in Human-Factors principles and psychological metrics can significantly contribute to addressing range anxiety. More, individual (level of experience, self-efficacy, threatening perceptions, attitude, technology commitment and personality) and interface features (range estimation, State of Charge, adaptability, GPS, charging points map, road information) have a role in influencing the EV usage and the onset of RA. Among the commonly employed methods for assessing range anxiety were questionnaires (PASA), scenario-based analyses, and behavioral observations (including facial expression and gaze analysis).This review shows that the best solution to reduce the range anxiety may be to design improvements that minimize alterations to lifestyle and behaviour in comparison to the traditional vehicle.The most effective approach for mitigating range anxiety might involve designing improvements that minimise disruptions to lifestyle and behaviours when compared to traditional vehicles. As a novel contribution, this research presents a diagram illustrating the significant relationships between range anxiety and individual, socio-technical, and Human-Factors variables.

Evaluation of combustion properties of vent gases from Li-ion batteries

Fire incidents involving Li-ion batteries is an increasing concern as the use of battery electric vehicles is increasing. Abuse conditions such as heating can result in ejection of flammable and toxic gases, presenting a health risk and risk of explosion or fire. The purpose of the present work is to increase the understanding of combustion of gas mixtures vented from Li-ion batteries. The investigation uses a new merged kinetic mechanism including hydrocarbons, hydrogen, carbon oxides, carbonates and fluorinated compounds. Seven typical Li-ion vent gas mixtures were selected based on published studies, and ignition and laminar flames were simulated. Modeling reveal a large variation in laminar burning velocity, flame temperature and heat release. Determining factors for laminar flames are the relative content of the carbonates and hydrogen gas, and the inert carbon dioxide. Gases from highly charged battery cells have the shortest ignition time at high temperatures and the fastest laminar burning velocity. The results can be used as input in computational fluid dynamics or safety engineering modeling. In addition, the versatile kinetic model can be used for fundamental studies of the combustion process and for generation of combustion characteristics such as laminar burning velocities for other vent gas mixtures.

Carbon footprint comparison analysis of passenger car segment electric and ICE propelled vehicles in Kuwait

Considering the decrease in the fossil-fuel reserves and environmental drawbacks of internal combustion engine (ICE) propelled vehicles, the usage of alternative prime movers such as electric vehicles (EVs) has gained significant potential in the last decades. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are a few currently available examples of vehicle electrification. EVs have zero in-use emissions, however, depending on the region to be operated, well-to-wheel (WTW) emissions need to be considered for a realistic carbon footprint effect considering global warming (GW) analysis. Especially, considering the countries where the usage of renewable energy (RE) sources is extremely limited, such as Kuwait and other GCC countries, the benefit of EVs significantly decreases. Within this perspective in this study, an inclusive CO2 emissions analysis for two passenger segment vehicles with different prime movers are analyzed: ICE and electric motor (EM). Longitudinal vehicle models were developed via MATLAB/Simulink software for both prime mover configurations which are capable of simulating the fuel/energy consumption using Toyota Camry and Lexus UX 300e vehicles. The generated CO2 emissions by the two prime movers were compared using the previously generated Kuwait driving cycle (Kuwait DC). The results indicated that the use of BEVs generated fewer CO2 emissions nearly half the amount of what ICE propelled vehicles generated.

Climate impact and energy use of structural battery composites in electrical vehicles—a comparative prospective life cycle assessment

PurposeStructural battery composites (SBCs) are multifunctional carbon fibre composites that can be used as structural elements in battery electric vehicles to store energy. By decreasing the weight of the vehicle, energy consumption in the use phase can be reduced, something that could be counteracted by the energy-intensive carbon fibre production. The purpose of this study is to shed light on such life-cycle considerations.MethodProspective life cycle assessment is used to compare the future cradle-to-grave climate impact and energy use of SBCs in battery electric vehicles to conventional metals and lithium-ion batteries. Additionally, the influences from different technology development routes, primarily related to the carbon fibre production, are assessed. The functional unit is the roof, hood, and doors of a battery electric vehicle with maintained flexural stiffness used for 200,000 km. To capture the multifunctionality of the material, the lithium-ion battery is also included in the functional unit.Results and discussionResults show that SBCs have a large potential to decrease the life cycle climate impact and energy use of battery electric vehicles, especially following routes focusing on decreasing the use of fossil resources, both for raw materials and as energy sources. The comparative assessment of multifunctional or recycled materials to conventional materials introduces several methodological challenges, such as defining the functional unit and choice of allocation approach for distributing burdens and benefits between life cycles in recycling. This study illustrates the importance of using both the cut-off and end-of-life recycling allocation approaches to capture extremes and to not provide biased results. This study also highlights the importance of considering the ease of repairability in comparative studies, as damages to car parts made from SBCs are likely more difficult to repair than those made from conventional materials.ConclusionsSBCs have the potential to reduce the life cycle climate impact and energy use for most scenarios compared to conventional materials. Three main methodological challenges were found: the comparison to a material with a well-established recycling system throughout its life cycle, the need for expanding the system boundaries to include the lithium-ion battery, and the difference in repairability of SBCs compared to the conventional material.

Assessment of selected environmental and economic factors for the development of electro-mobility in Poland

AbstractElectromobility is now widely recognized as a remedy for the growing level of greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector. The result of this approach is the agreement of the European Commission with the member states regarding the achievement of CO2-free emission of the new fleet of passenger cars by 2035 through the use of battery electric vehicles. However, it should be emphasized that currently, not every country in the European Union has electricity sources with low CO2 emission (Proposal for a REGULATION… (EU) 2019/631), which in fact can contribute to a lower environmental effect than expected. The amount of environmental impact of a battery electric vehicle depends mainly on the type of energy mix of the country in which it is used. In view of the above, the first scientific objective of the article is a comparative assessment of environmental impact, using the LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), the phase of use of passenger cars with conventional drive in relation to battery electric vehicles consuming electricity from the power grid in Poland and in Italy. The results of the LCA analysis, phases of BEV use in Poland indicate a higher level of environmental impact in relation to ICE due to the generation of electricity, for the most part from hard coal. Nevertheless, in Poland, as in other EU countries, an electromobility support system is being implemented. The successful implementation of electromobility depends on the environmental awareness of BEV users. The scientific cognitive aspect of the BEV purchase decisions of the Polish society is carried out using a survey questionnaire with the use of a non-random selection of the research sample (convenient selection). The aim of this cross-sectional survey was to confront the results of the environmental impact of the BEV use phase with the knowledge of the Polish society, as well as to learn about purchasing factors (future and current users). The results of the survey questionnaire demonstrate the low level of knowledge of the Polish society on the impact of the BEV use phase in Poland. This can be the result of media coverage in which BEV is presented as ecological transport. The aim of the article is not to depreciate the environmental performance of BEVs, but to draw attention to the fact that, to a large extent, the environmental impact of the BEV use phase depends on the place of use (country), and precisely the type of energy mix of a particular country. The literature on the subject lacks the confrontation of the results of scientific research in the field of environmental impact assessment of the BEV use phase with the knowledge of the public on this subject. The research results can be used by decision makers to properly target the support for the development of electromobility in Poland, consisting primarily in increasing the availability of infrastructure for charging BEV and changing the energy mix to energy sources with a lower environmental impact.

Evaluation of Future Battery Electric Vehicles as an Environmentally Friendly Transportation Means: A Review

The climate challenge is an energy challenge. thus, policymakers around the world are trying to accelerate the adoption of clean energy technologies. The Global Energy Review said that global CO2 emissions from energy combustion in 2021 reached the highest annual level with an increase of 6% from 2020, The automotive sector is very important to achieve net zero global emissions by 2050 based on the agreement with the world in the Scenario Net Zero Emissions by 2050. in which in 2035 sales of internal combustion engine cars (ICE) will be stopped. In this case, of course, electric vehicles are an alternative to the field of future land transportation that uses batteries as fuel that utilizes renewable energy as a charger for electric vehicles. Electric vehicle charging infrastructure (EVCI) is a key driver of increased electrification mobility shifting away from internal combustion engines given that the specific geographical distribution of a region and its demographics are factors influencing the adoption of electric vehicles. This paper was written to review the state-of-the-art of Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV), a PV energy source in terms of renewable energy utilization, energy generation, batteries, and charging stations. PV generation is extensively reviewed, and although this research is quite extensive, some gaps need to be investigated for further research on commercial and residential aspects as a means of operating batteries for electric vehicle charging stations based on PV and BESS (Battery Energy Storage System). Regulations on the use of battery electric vehicles as an environmentally friendly means of transportation will grow based on government policies from each country

A Constraint-Based Routing and Charging Methodology for Battery Electric Vehicles With Deep Reinforcement Learning

Electric vehicle route planning (EVRP) is generated from the collaborative operation of smart grids and intelligent transportation systems. It has become an essential issue for the widespread use of battery electric vehicles. However, the existed EVRP solutions are of either high computational complexity or low efficiency for large-scale problems. Towards such issues, we propose an efficient Deep Reinforcement Learning based methodology for constraint-based routing while simultaneously considering electric vehicles’ charging policies. We design a two-layer model to find near-optimal solutions and handle the broad range of problem instances according to the rewards and the preset feasibility rules. The first layer is to approximate a sequence of consecutive actions in reality and correspondingly produce a minimum time-consuming feasible route without re-training for each new problem instance. The second layer is to generate a charging scheme along the previously generated feasible path. The proposed methodology is independent of the road network topology and the electric vehicles’ types. Besides, the convergence of value function in the presented model for EVRP is studied. The experiment shows that our methodology outperforms the traditional ones in computation time with comparable solution quality. Moreover, the obtained model can be directly applied to treat other problem instances on various road networks without re-training procedures.

Exploring the Feasibility of Battery Electric and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles as Peaker Plant Substitutes at Low Wind and Irradiation Conditions

In this paper a comparison between the use of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs) to span cold dark doldrums (“Dunkelflaute”) in a future energy system with a high penetration of renewable energy supply is presented. A big problem with the cold dark doldrums is the rareness of the situation. Any power plant built to specifically be used during those special weather conditions will be operated only 0.1 % of the time according to a study on the energy demand in Germany in 2050 Aurora (2021) even though 10 GW are required to meet the demand. A prototype FCEV docking station to measure power transfer efficiencies was built. By this, we investigated supplying a district with energy via FCEVs by simulating a district with varying amounts of BEVs present. It is possible to supply a district with a low number of FCEVs although a stationary hydrogen connection would be beneficial. The efficient transfer of energy from a FCEV to a building requires a careful design of the plate heat exchangers and depends on the temperature level of the supplied building.

The effect of financial literacy and green innovation technology on green economic sustainability in emerging countries

As battery electric vehicles become more prevalent in emerging markets, it is important that policymakers and the public consider their potential to contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. This study explores the link between financial knowledge, attitude and green economic sustainability. The study, which was conducted in Indonesia, collected data about 155 individuals. Through a PLS-SEM analysis, the study revealed that financial knowledge and green innovation were related to the attitude toward sustainability. The study also found that green innovation was associated with the economic sustainability of the country. However, it did not find any significant relationship between financial knowledge and green investment. The study revealed that financial literacy is very important for consumers to adopt sustainable practices. It can help them make informed decisions when it comes to the use of battery electric vehicles. This study was conducted after the Indonesian government stated that it would promote the use of green products. Innovation and green investment can help improve the economic sustainability of a country by increasing people's green attitudes and knowledge.

V2G And G2V System Design As An Alternative Power On Microgrid With Smart Switching Method Based On Microcontroller

Solar energy is very easy to get in Indonesia because it is located in the tropics and equatorial regions. With the abundance of solar energy, the PLTS system is very suitable for use in Indonesia. Apart from these advantages, the microgrid system with a PV mini-grid still has drawbacks, namely intermittent sun exposure, so the reliability of the PV mini-grid system is affected by time, climate, and weather. Therefore, the PLTS system requires electrical energy storage technology in the form of batteries. In addition to the use of batteries, the use of battery electric vehicles (BEV) can also be used as an alternative to help supply power to the microgrid system. Its application uses the Vehicle to Grid (V2G) and Grid to Vehicle (G2V) methods. In this study, the design of the V2G and G2V systems was made with the Smart Switching method as an alternative power source to the microgrid system. The Smart Switching method is used to consider the condition of the battery to prevent overheating, overcharging, and deep discharging. It is equipped with a battery condition monitoring system that can be monitored on the LCD screen. The results of this study showed that the design of the V2G and G2V switching systems can run according to the plan. The system can provide power to the microgrid busbar. The system can automatically cut off when the maximum temperature, the upper and lower limits of the battery voltage, and the monitoring system can provide information in the form of battery conditions, temperature values, voltages, and currents. Thus, the V2G and G2V systems with the Smart Switching method can already be applied as an alternative power source to the microgrid system.

Promoting electric vehicle demand in Europe: Design of innovative electricity consumption simulator and subsidy strategies based on well-to-wheel analysis

Decarbonization in the transport sector, especially in private mobility, is one of the main objectives of the European Union (EU) for next few years. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) represent a promising solution for reducing pollution and GHG emissions; however, their purchase price contributes to curbing their diffusion. In this scenario, the aims of this study are to develop a flexible, simulation-based analysis for EU car fleets in terms of energy consumption and GHG emissions and, based on the simulation results, to propose an innovative system of financial subsidies. This can support governments in encouraging EU customers to prefer sustainable and green options for mobility. Different car segments have been considered; the electrical energy consumptions have been obtained through the development of an ad-hoc simulation model in Simulink®-MathWorks environment, while the Well-To-Wheel analysis has been performed to estimate GHG emissions. Based on these assumptions, four different subsidy strategies have been proposed and designed for countries of the EU-27. According to different logics, economic subsidies have been linked to GHG emissions avoided thanks to the use of BEVs. The results obtained show how BEVs’ consumption of electricity is low, even for larger vehicles, and this allows BEVs to be considered less impactful than internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEV) with respect to GHG emissions. Furthermore, results are highly variable, depending on the electricity mix of each considered country, and they show how, for the countries that use the most renewable sources, the proposed subsidies even can generate gains from consumers’ perspectives.

Hydrogen-Electric Aircraft Technologies and Integration: Enabling an environmentally sustainable aviation future

As the global community grapples with growing concerns of a changing climate, many eyes have turned to the sustainability of the transportation sector. In the United States, transportation is currently the leading category contributing to all greenhouse gas emissions, producing more emissions per year than the electricity generation, industry, commercial and residential, and agricultural sectors individually. As various transportation modes transition to more sustainable models, such as with the use of battery-electric vehicles, the aviation sector has struggled to identify effective solutions for future sustainability goals, largely due to the difference in power and energy requirements of aircraft, as compared to other vehicles. One solution currently being explored by a number of academic, government, and industry researchers is the use of hydrogen-energy systems on aircraft. Although practical challenges do exist in hydrogen adoption on aircraft, lightweight energy storage mediums remain appealing and technically viable solutions for future generations of air vehicles. More specifically to hydrogen-electric aircraft configurations, further significant developments are required in key technologies, such as high-temperature fuel cell power plants, electric machines, power electronics, power transmission systems, airframe designs, and propulsion system integration. However, there nevertheless remains a line-of-sight pathway to future zero-emissions aircraft capable of meeting or exceeding the performance of existing air vehicles. As described in this article, the advantages of future hydrogen-electric aircraft reside not in one specific technology but rather in the synergistic integration of a multitude of components into innovative aircraft configurations. These developments are explained using a candidate hydrogen-electric aircraft designed to fill the same mission-performance characteristics as a single-aisle reference aircraft, while producing zero carbon dioxide (CO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> ) and nitrogen oxide emissions across the entirety of the aircraft’s long-range mission.

VPO5: An all-climate lithium-storage material

Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are very popular nowadays. However, the current lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) for BEVs suffer from unsatisfactory electrochemical performance at low and high temperatures, limiting the use of BEVs in cold and hot situations. It is highly desirable but very challenge to explore all-climate Li+-storage materials. Herein, we explore VPO5 with a rich vanadium-valence variation and special crystal structure as an all-climate anode material with comprehensively good electrochemical performance. In its structure, electrochemical active VO6-octahedron chains are linked by inactive PO4 tetrahedra, not only generating large-sized channels for fast Li+ transport/storage but also enabling a maximum volume variation of only ∼0.6% during lithiation/delithiation. Additionally, the volume variation (maximum 9.7%) from the small amount (<30 wt.%) of the new LiVPO5 phase emerged after initial lithiation can be buffered by the large amount of “zero-strain” VPO5. Consequently, at 25 // −20 // 60 °C, VPO5 delivers a large reversible capacity of 246 // 181 // 334 mAh g−1 with a safe working potential of 0.74 // 0.69 // 0.77 V vs. Li/Li+ at 0.1C, high rate performance with 128 // 85 // 127 mAh g−1 at 10C // 2C // 10C, and good cyclability with capacity retention of 100.1% // 109.4% // 151.4% at 10C // 2C // 10C over 10,000 // 3000 // 1000 cycles within 0.2–3.0 V. These desirable electrochemical data from low to high temperatures suggest that VPO5 is a promising anode material for all-climate LIBs used in BEVs.

The dynamic bike repositioning problem with battery electric vehicles and multiple charging technologies

The bike-repositioning problem (BRP) primarily involves determining the routes and loading instructions for a fleet of vehicles that transport bikes between stations in a bike sharing system (BSS), to mitigate the mismatch between the demand for and supply of public bikes. However, the use of fossil-fueled vehicles for this repositioning task generates pollutants and greenhouse gases, which harm the environment. The use of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) instead of fossil-fueled vehicles for repositioning bikes can mitigate this negative environmental impact. On the other hand, user demand for bikes is dynamic during the daytime. Therefore, this study addresses the dynamic BRP with battery electric vehicles. Multiple charging technologies are available at charging stations to allow repositioning vehicles to recharge en-route at different speeds and costs. The objective is to solve the problem by minimizing the weighted sum of the penalty costs of unmet user demand and the charging costs of repositioning vehicles. A rolling horizon framework is adopted to incorporate the revealed inventory levels at bike stations, the BEV load of bikes, and the battery energy levels of BEVs at regular intervals. An artificial bee colony algorithm with an embedded dynamic programming method for computing the loading instructions is proposed to generate solutions. Computational experiments are conducted on a real-world BSS, and three aspects of the problem properties are analyzed: the horizon settings, the various penalties for failed rentals and returns, and the charging-related settings. The results provide practical insights into the use of BEVs for daily bike-repositioning tasks in BSSs.

Optimal charging strategy for intercity travels of battery electric vehicles

Limited driving range, long charging time and high charging costs affect the use of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) for intercity travels and often compel drivers to charge their vehicles more than once. This study proposes a multistage optimisation model to provide BEV drivers with a charging strategy for intercity travel. This model aims to jointly minimise travel time and charging cost and to determine the optimal amount of charged energy in each charging station located along the available routes. A dynamic programming method for solving this model is also designed. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed model and solution method are verified through the numerical example and simulations. The results indicate that the trade-offs between travel time and charging cost significantly influence the proposed solution, and the residual energy at the destination affects the availability of routes. The policy implications for the BEV-based intercity travels are discussed.