The electric location routing problem with time windows and partial recharging

Electric commercial vehicles are expected to contribute significantly to the mobility of the future. Furthermore, there are first pilot projects of logistics companies operating electric commercial vehicles. So far, planning approaches for electric fleets either address routing decisions with emphasis on the limited driving range and long charging times of the vehicles, or focus on the siting of charging stations in order to implement the necessary charging infrastructure. In this paper, we present a location routing approach to consider routing of electric vehicles and siting decisions for charging stations simultaneously in order to support strategic decisions of logistics fleet operators. Thereby, we regard different recharging options due to real world constraints. Furthermore, we also take alternative objective functions into account minimizing not only the traveled distance, but also the number of vehicles needed and the number of charging stations sited as well as total costs. Results are presented for the total traveled distance of the location routing model, and potential improvements compared to a vehicle routing model are shown. Shorter overall distances can be achieved if simultaneous siting as well as extended recharging options are allowed. Besides, results for the other objective functions are shown with respect to the impact of the objectives and conflicting targets. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.