Freight distribution in urban area with electric vehicles: preliminary results of iNEXT project

The iNEXT (Innovation for greeN Energy and eXchange in Transportation) project aims to support innovation in the field related to road transport and energy demand of buildings. Particularly, the first field promotes the use of ecological vehicles in passenger transport and freight distribution considering the energy production from renewable sources (RES). At the same time, the project will address the development of production plants from RES with advanced electrochemical storage systems and hydrogen production/storage able to interface the electric/hybrid vehicles under control of an ICT platform. In this paper it is analysed the freight distribution using a new concept delivery electric van in a test site. The vehicles start from an urban distribution centre (employed also as location for energy production) and supply some clients in the town. The vehicle routes are designed solving a vehicle routing problem with the aim to minimize the energy employed.