How battery electric vehicles can contribute to sustainable urban logistics: A real-world application in Lisbon, Portugal

Concerns with environmental impacts of urban mobility have led to the development of alternative solutions, such as battery electric vehicles (BEV), highly applicable to certain sectors namely in urban logistics, since BEV powertrain characteristics are extremely suited for urban driving context. This research work evaluates the adequacy of BEV in urban logistics in Lisbon, based on a real-world application. Vehicle second-by-second data was collected during regular operation of both the internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV) and the BEV (for 7 and 3 months respectively). The results demonstrate that BEV allows maintaining the same operation patterns, regarding the number of kilometers travelled per day (60 km), recharging time (6 h), and vehicle dynamics (average speed of 16 km/h for ICEV and 19 km/h for BEV). When comparing the energy impacts of shifting to electric mobility, the BEV allows reducing vehicle usage energy consumption by 76% and by 57% when considering the energy production stage. The logistics operations performance was not affected by the vehicle technology shift, since the operational requirements of the service were maintained and no issues on electric autonomy and recharging periods were observed, confirming the suitability of this vehicle technology for specific urban logistics applications.