Seite - 96 - in Emerging Technologies for Electric and Hybrid Vehicles

Energies 2016,9, 86 have tobeconsidered forasignificant shareofdeliveryoperations. Second,manycompanies, e.g., in thesmallpackageshippingsector, faceahighpercentageof time-definitedeliveries,whichmakes the integrationof customer timewindows into theroutingmodelanecessity. Thesecondaspect is especially interestingbecauserechargingtimes forEVscannotbeassumedtobefixedbutdependon thecurrentbatterychargeof thevehiclewhenarrivingat therechargingstation.Moreover, recharging operations takea significant amountof time, especially compared to the relatively short customer service timesof, e.g., smallpackageshippers,andthusclearlyaffect therouteplanning. Motivated by the current transportation circumstances, Electric VehicleManagement (EVM) has recentlyemergedasanewchallengingproblem,which is strongly related to thefieldofgreen logisticsandhas thepurpose toexpedite theestablishmentofacustomerconvenient, cost-effective, EVs infrastructure. Basedonthe increasingrelevanceof theproblemin the lastyears, anumberof researchgroups in thisfieldhavestartedworkingonsomeparticularaspectsof thisnewarea. The nextsubsectionsanalyzesometypical strategic, tactical, andoperational issuesarising inEVMbased onthenewfeaturesofEVs. 4.1. Economic IssuesofEVs This is a strategic objective that tries to determine if the emerging novel EVs technology is sustainable for certain transportation activities. Many papers have been devoted to sustainable operations in the transportationarea.However, researchontheeconomicviabilityofEVs is limited in theproductionandoperationsmanagement literature. Inaddition, the impactofEVsontheassociated supply chain is yet to be examined. Research on EVs has beenmostly focused on: (i) planning infrastructuredeployment[46]; (ii) impactof integratingelectricvehicles intothepowersystem[84,85]; and (iii) using incentives topromoteEVs [86]. Perspectives and insights onEVadoptionareonly recentlybeingdeveloped. Thus, intheAvcietal. [87]model, theinteractionsbetweentheinfrastructure provider anddirect consumers in a principal-agent framework. Kleindorfer et al. [88] develop a framework to determine andvalue optimal fleet renewal strategies for the Frenchpostal service, LaPoste,under twotechnologyoptions (EVsandICEVs),uncertain fuelcosts,anduncertainbattery prices. Wang and Lin [89] consider a firm’s capacity adjustments over time given a portfolio of technologyoptionswhenthedemandandthe fuel costsareuncertain.Chocteau et al. [90]useagame theory frameworktostudythevalueofcooperationbetweenstakeholderssuchasfleetmanager,auto manufacturer,andelectricitysupplierundermultiplecoalitionsettings. Theyalsopresentconditions underwhichsuchcooperationcanaddvalue. 4.2. Fleet size andMix IssuesofEVs Acritical issuearisingwhenEVsare incorporated into thesetofvehicles tobemanagedgives place to the so-calledVRPswith heterogeneous fleet. Contributions related to fleet size andmix consideringEVsarerecentandvery limited.AMixedFleetorHeterogeneousVRPconsidersproblems wheredifferenttypesofvehiclesareavailable. Itwasfirst introducedinGoldenetal. [91]. Subsequently, Baldacci et al. [92] identifiesfivemajorsubclassesdiffering in thenumberofvehiclesavailable (limited andunlimited),whetherafixedcostpervehicle isconsideredornotandif theroutingcostdepends onthevehicle type. Theoriginal formulation in [91]considersanunlimitednumberofvehicleswith fixedacquisitioncostsandvehicle type independentroutingcosts,whichcanbeclassifiedasaFleet SizeandMixVRPwithFixedcosts (FSMF). Asdescribedin[70],LiuandShen[93]proposes thefleetsizeandmixVRPwith timewindows reformulating the FSMF to take into account timewindows. The routing cost corresponds to the so-called enroute time ,which is the timebetweendepartingfromandreturningto thedepotmenus decumulativeservice timeat thecustomers in therespectiveroute. Thisapproachwas testedusinga newbenchmarksetbasedonthewell-knownSolomoninstances for theVRPwith timewindows. 96