Impact of Charging Infrastructure Strategies on Operations of Battery Electric Trucks: Case Study of Drayage Application

The electrification of truck fleets presents a promising pathway toward reducing emissions in the freight transportation sector. While the feasibility of operating battery electric trucks (BETs) in drayage application has been demonstrated, the impact of charging infrastructure strategies in support of such operation is not well understood. This study evaluates the use of home base, opportunity, and network charging strategies for drayage BETs with a particular focus on the I-710, a major freight corridor in Southern California. Using second-by-second real-world operation data of five typical drayage trucks, we identified 1,403 trips and 338 tours, and simulated them being performed by BETs with different specifications using different charging strategies. Our findings show that BETs with large battery packs would be able to complete nearly all the tours while only relying on home base charging. However, this would come at the cost of increased vehicle weight, which reduces payload capacity. In contrast, BETs with smaller battery packs, which offer a larger payload capacity but have a more limited range, would not be able to complete a number of tours if utilizing home base charging alone. However, incorporating realistic opportunity charging at frequently visited stops (e.g., warehouses) and taking advantage of strategically placed network charging stations can help overcome the range limitation and enable the same level of tour completion as utilizing BETs with larger battery packs.