Routing of Electronic Automobileswith Hybrid Nonlinear Charging Strategy for Logistics Distribution

The classical vehicle routing problems (VRP) usually only consider load constraints and node constraints. As theshare of electric automobileswithin the road transportation fleet increases, the routing problem of suchelectric automobilesshowing anonlinear charging property (EVRP-NL) is of great implication to urban logistics distribution. The existing nonlinear charging functionsof charging time and charging amountarelinearized, and fitting methods are simplified by calculating charging rate sectionally.According to the characteristics of logistics distribution served by electric automobiles, an extended model of EVRP-NL with load, node, power and time window constraints and linearizedconditions of charging functionsisdeveloped, which aims to minimize the summation of fixed cost, operating cost, fast charging cost, and battery replacement cost.The extend modelachieves the nonlinear hybrid charging strategy consisting of power replacement and a fast charge method considering the nonlinear relationship between charging time and charging amount, named nonlinear fast charge.Theresults of simulationshow that the model is feasible and universal in different types of data.The results of actual logisticsdatashow that nonlinear hybrid charge can reduce 35% of charging time and 69% of charging cost, and therefore prove that nonlinear hybrid charge strategy has much more significant advantages than the othermethods.The sensitivity analysesagainstdifferent prices of fast charging and battery swapping show that the hybrid charging strategy is more inclined to the mode with a cheaper price.When the price of electricity rises to a certain level, neither charging mode nor its cost changes anymore.