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City logistics: light and electric

Managing parking pressure concerns related to charging stations for electric vehicles

With the rise of the number of electric vehicles, the installment of public charging infrastructure is becoming more prominent. In urban areas in which EV users rely on on-street parking facilities, the demand for public charging stations is high. Cities take on the role of implementing public charging infrastructure and are looking for efficient roll-out strategies. Municipalities generally reserve the parking spots next to charging stations to ensure their availability. Underutilization of these charging stations leads to increased parking pressure, especially during peak hours. The city of The Hague has therefore implemented daytime reservation of parking spots next to charging stations. These parking spots are exclusively available between 10:00 and 19:00 for electric vehicles and are accessible for other vehicles beyond these times. This paper uses a large dataset with information on nearly 40.000 charging sessions to analyze the implementation of the abovementioned scheme. An unique natural experiment was created in which charging stations within areas of similar parking pressure did or did not have this scheme implemented. Results show that implemented daytime charging 10-19 can restrict EV owners in using the charging station at times when they need it. An extension of daytime charging to 10:00-22:00 proves to reduce the hurdle for EV drivers as only 3% of charging sessions take place beyond this time. The policy still has the potential to relieve parking pressure. The paper contributes to the knowledge of innovative measures to stimulate the optimized rollout and usage of charging infrastructure.

Logistics concepts for light electric freight vehicles

The demand for the transport of goods within the city is rising and with that the number of vans driving around. This has adverse effects on air quality, noise, safety and liveability in the city. LEFVs (Light Electric Freight Vehicles) offer a potential solution for this. There is already a lot of enthusiasm for the LEFVs and several companies have started offering the vehicles. Still many companies are hesitating to start and experience. New knowledge is needed of logistics concepts for the application of LEFVs. This paper shows the outcomes of eight case studies about what is needed to successfully deploy LEFVs for city logistics.

Fast Charging Systems for Passenger Electric Vehicles

This paper explores current and potential future use of fast charging stations for electric passenger vehicles. The aim of the paper is to analyse current charging patterns at fast charging stations and the role of fast charging among different charging options. These patterns are explored along the lines of the technical capabilities of the vehicles and it is found that with increasing battery capacity the need for fast charging decreases. However, for those vehicles with large charging capacities there are indications that fast charging is perceived as more convenient as these are used more often. Such results indicate a larger share for fast charging if charging capacities increase in the future. Results from a spatial analysis show that most fast charging is done at a considerable distance from home, suggesting mostly ‘on the road’ charging sessions. Some fast charging sessions are relatively close to home, especially for those without private home charging access. This shows some future potential for fast charging in cities with many on-street parking facilities.

Estimating the charging profile of individual charge sessions of Electric Vehicles in the Netherlands

The mass adoption of Electric Vehicles (EVs) might raise pressure on the power system, especially during peak hours. Therefore, there is a need for delayed charging. However, to optimize the charging system, the progression of charging from an empty battery to a full battery of the EVs, based on real-world data, needs to be analyzed. Currently, many researchers view this charging profile as a static load and ignore the actual charging behavior during the charging session. However, this study investigates how different factors influence the charging profile of individual EVs based on real-world data of charging sessions in The Netherlands, and thereby enable optimization analysis of EV smart charging schemes.

Cooperative behaviour at public electric vehicle charging stations

Underutilised charging stations can be a bottleneck in the swift transition to electric mobility. This study is the first to research cooperative behaviour at public charging stations as a way to address improved usage of public charging stations. It does so by viewing public charging stations as a common-pool resource and explains cooperative behaviour from an evolutionary perspective. Current behaviour is analysed using a survey (313 useful responses) and an analysis of large dataset (2.1 million charging sessions) on the use of public charging infrastructure in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. In such a way it identifies the potential, drivers and possible obstacles that electric vehicle drivers experience when cooperating with other drivers to optimally make use of existing infrastructure. Results show that the intention to show direct reciprocal charging behaviour is high among the respondents, although this could be limited if the battery did not reach full or sufficient state-of-charge at the moment of the request. Intention to show direct reciprocal behaviour is mediated by kin and network effects.