Utility evaluation of battery electric vehicles in urban distribution

Utilizing battery electric vehicles in daily distribution operations of logistics service providers and freight forwarders goes along with major uncertainties for companies. There is no mechanism how to evaluate the technical and economical use of battery electric vehicles in companies use cases and processes in status quo in contrast to vehicles with an internal engine. This paper adopts an evaluation mechanism from literature, which is bases on a value benefit analysis with compensation factors, and applies this evaluation model to three real life use cases of a renowned logistics service provider with worldwide activities and strong business in road-bound transportation of palletized goods for B2B and B2C customers. The results of the evaluation showed that a substitution of vehicles with internal combustion engines with battery electric vehicles is not an applicable approach. The evaluation shows, that using battery electric vehicles in distribution generates only 41% (3:5 t vehicles) respectively 34% (7:5 t trucks) of the benefit value as using conventional vehicles with internal combustion engine. The results of the evaluation confirm, that not parameters of range and the operating costs, but parameters of payload and the vehicle asset costs are determining the utility evaluation in distribution use cases. In fact planning of distribution operations need to be adapted to the specific performance parameters of battery electric vehicles. The presented evaluation model in this paper can identify the fields of action, in which a company needs to adapt existing distribution activities.