Electric Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows and Cargo Weight

There is growing interest in the utilization of electric vehicles (EVs) in logistics operations as they can cut dependency on fossil fuels, hence, significantly contribute to the efforts on reducing carbon emissions and air pollution. However, their limited driving range still remains as a major barrier in their adoption despite the advancements in battery technology. In this study, we extend the well-known Electric Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows by taking into account the cargo weight, which may play a crucial role in the operational efficiency of the EVs since it can affect the energy consumption significantly. We present the mixed-integer linear programming formulation of the problem and perform an extensive experimental study to investigate the influence of load on the routing decisions. We solve small-size instances using a commercial solver, and for the large-size instances, we develop a Large Neighbourhood Search algorithm. The results show that cargo weight may create substantial changes in the route plans and fleet size.