The Electric Vehicle-Routing Problem with Time Windows and Recharging Stations

Driven by new laws and regulations concerning the emission of greenhouse gases, carriers are starting to use electric vehicles for last-mile deliveries. The limited battery capacities of these vehicles necessitate visits to recharging stations during delivery tours of industry-typical length, which have to be considered in the route planning to avoid inefficient vehicle routes with long detours. We introduce the electric vehicle-routing problem with time windows and recharging stations (E-VRPTW), which incorporates the possibility of recharging at any of the available stations using an appropriate recharging scheme. Furthermore, we consider limited vehicle freight capacities as well as customer time windows,…