Charging Station Site Selection Optimization for Electric Logistics Vehicles, Taking into Account Time-Window and Load Constraints

Abstract

In order to improve the efficiency of the “last-mile” distribution in urban logistics and solve the problem of the difficult charging of electric logistics vehicles (ELVs), this paper proposes a charging station location optimization scheme for ELVs that takes into account time-window and load constraints (TW-LCs). Taking the optimal transportation path as the objective function and considering the time-window and vehicle load constraints, a charging station siting model was established. For the TW-LC problem, an improved genetic algorithm combining the farthest-insertion heuristic idea and local search operation was designed. Three different types of standardized arithmetic examples, C type, R type, and RC type, were used to test the proposed algorithm and compare it with the traditional genetic algorithm. The results indicate that, under the same conditions, compared to the traditional genetic algorithm, the improved genetic algorithm reduced the optimal path length by an average of 11.12%. It also decreased the number of charging stations selected, the number of vehicles in use, and the algorithm complexity by 22.97%, 13.71%, and 46.81%. Building on this, a case study was conducted on the TW-LC problem in a specific area of Chongqing, China. It resulted in a 50% reduction in the number of charging stations and a 25% reduction in the number of vehicles selected. In terms of economic indicators, the proposed algorithm improves unit electricity sales by 73.88% and reduces the total annualized cost of the logistics company by 18.81%, providing a theoretical basis for the subsequent promotion of ELVs.