Agent-based Simulation of Electric Taxicab Fleets

Battery operated electric vehicles offer the opportunity to manage zero-emission car traffic at low operational costs. Due to their current range constraints, electric vehicle operations are mainly attractive for inner-city transport, with taxicabs being one possible field of application. In this paper, a battery operated electric taxicab fleet is simulated in a small city scenario using the agent-based transport simulation MATSim. The simulation results indicate no negative impact on the level of service provided by taxis in everyday operations when using electric cars. However, facing increased demand, conventionally operated taxi fleets may provide a better service.The simulation also demonstrates that every taxi rank only needs to be equipped with a small number of charging outlets. Under these circumstances, it may be useful from the passengers’ perspective to dispatch those taxis with the highest battery charge level first.