Simple Truck Swap Fails: Redesigning Routes Doubles Electric Fleet Savings
A new study finds that logistics companies replacing diesel trucks with electric ones without rethinking operations are leaving money on the table. By optimizing routes, fleet composition, and charging schedules together, operators can cut costs twice as much and electrify 85% of deliveries instead of 48%—showing that the business case for e-trucks hinges on operational redesign, not just hardware swaps.
Originaltitel: Quantifying the impact of fleet planning re-optimization on truck electrification in distribution logistics
<p>Electrifying heavy-duty truck fleets is critical for decarbonization, yet several cutting-edge approaches are based on historical diesel plans which do not account for electric truck characteristics. Such one-to-one replacement of diesel trucks without adapting operational plans may thus underestimate the technical and economic feasibility of battery electric trucks. To better understand the potential for fleet-level optimization, we compare a one-to-one replacement strategy against a holistic re-optimization approach that jointly solves for fleet composition, shipment-to-vehicle allocation, vehicle routing, and charge scheduling. Using real-world data from German grocery logistics (~38,000 shipments), we find that re-optimization unlocks significantly higher electrification potential and economic performance. It increases the electrifiable payload from 48% to 85% and doubles the fleet-level cost reduction (7.0% vs. 3.5%) compared to the optimized diesel baseline. These results demonstrate that maximizing electric fleet viability requires moving beyond simple hardware substitution to fundamentally restructuring operational logistics.</p>