Energy and Economic Feasibility of Transition to Light-Duty Electric Vehicles in Business Fleets

Juan C. Castillo, Mariana Cardona, Manuela Idárraga, Andrés F. Uribe, Juan E. Tibaquirá, Michael Giraldo (), Alvaro Restrepo and Camilo Correa Romero
Additional contact information
Juan C. Castillo: Industry, Materials, and Energy Area, School of Applied Sciences and Engineering, Universidad EAFIT, Medellin 050022, Colombia
Mariana Cardona: Genergetica Research Group, Facultad de Mecánica Aplicada, Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, Pereira 660003, Colombia
Manuela Idárraga: Genergetica Research Group, Facultad de Mecánica Aplicada, Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, Pereira 660003, Colombia
Andrés F. Uribe: Industry, Materials, and Energy Area, School of Applied Sciences and Engineering, Universidad EAFIT, Medellin 050022, Colombia
Juan E. Tibaquirá: Genergetica Research Group, Facultad de Mecánica Aplicada, Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, Pereira 660003, Colombia
Michael Giraldo: Industry, Materials, and Energy Area, School of Applied Sciences and Engineering, Universidad EAFIT, Medellin 050022, Colombia
Alvaro Restrepo: Genergetica Research Group, Facultad de Mecánica Aplicada, Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, Pereira 660003, Colombia
Camilo Correa Romero: Energía de Pereira Research Group, Innovation Area, Empresa de Energía de Pereira, Pereira 660002, Colombia

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 21, 1-23

Abstract: Vehicle electrification has been proposed as a strategy for decarbonizing the transport sector. However, companies operating fleets of light-duty internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) for personnel and freight transportation still lack the data and decision-making tools necessary to evaluate the transition to electric vehicles (EVs). This study proposes a novel methodology that combines the use of web applications with longitudinal vehicle dynamics to determine energy consumption and regenerative braking potential. In addition, it incorporates energy consumption data, taxes, subsidies and vehicle discounts to conduct a comparative analysis of the total cost of ownership of EVs versus IECVs. The proposed methodology was applied to evaluate the feasibility of an energy transition in a fleet of vans and pickup trucks used for transporting personnel and materials. The results show that the model can estimate energy consumption with an average error of 7.6% compared to monitored data. Replacing 10 ICEVs with 5 electric vans and 5 electric pickup trucks could reduce energy consumption by up to 62%. The operating cost of the electric van is 8.5% lower than its ICEV counterpart, while the electric pickup achieves a 13.8% reduction in operating costs compared to the combustion model. The technical findings and the methodology of this study are expected to provide a solid basis for companies to evaluate the energy and economic feasibility of electrifying their fleets.

Keywords: electric vehicles; air quality; energy consumption; cost feasibility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/21/5745/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/21/5745/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:21:p:5745-:d:1784284

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Cassie Shen

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().