Abstract

This paper summarises the lessons learned from using electric freight vehicles (EFVs) for urban freight transport in three dimensions. First we look at the technical and operational suitability of using EFVs, including energy efficiency, range and its seasonal variations, and charging and local grid capacity issues. Then we examine all the elements which affect the business case from a carrier’s perspective, including changes of business model by the size of the vehicle, changes in value network and the elements required to enable a transition towards a wider-scale electrification. Finally, we present the environmental impacts from running EFVs at three levels, including direct impact analysis from the project demonstration activities, impact analysis at a wider uptake level by using traffic models and impact monetisation. Data used for this analysis is collected under the European FP7 project FREVUE, where around 80 electric-powered vehicles were deployed in the cities of Amsterdam, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Milan, Oslo, Rotterdam, and Stockholm.

Abstract

Within the FREVUE project 80 fully electric freight vehicles have been deployed. It showed that city logistics operations can be performed by electric freight vehicles, but that at the moment the high vehicle purchasing costs are still a barrier for large scale utilisation of electric freight vehicles for logistics operations. Only for small EFVs (lighter than 3.5 tons) a short term feasible business case is possible. For the larger vans and rigid trucks, a feasible business case is not yet possible from an operator’s perspective, often not even with subsidies. Copyright © 2018 Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan, Inc. All rights reserved