A Transport Simulation-Based Analysis of Charging Station Occupation for Long-Distance Route Planning of Battery Electric Vehicles

Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are on the advance in many countries worldwide. A major concern of potential customers is battery electric range. This is tackled strongly by car manufacturers with technological progress in batteries and efficiency to increase range and decrease charging times. The next challenge to overcome is charging station occupation, which can lead to long queues and waiting times. This is already experienced on heavy traffic routes or busy travel days like during holiday season. Furthermore, in Germany the amount of BEVs grows faster than the amount of high performance charging stations (HPCs). In this work a new simulation framework based on MATSim is introduced to analyze charging station occupation for long distance route planning of BEVs within Germany. In a scenario analysis it is shown, that combined with egoistic decentralized route planning, long queues can occur. The simulator provides the ability to develop, test and benchmark fleet based route planning algorithms to reduce waiting times.