Development of a Concept for Inner-City Delivery & Supply Utilising Electromobility

Abstract

Topicality and relevance. In these times of climate change and the shortage of limited resources, electromobility is increasingly receiving greater focus from large, industrialised nations, cp. Clausen (2008, Pg. 16ff.) 1. Within the framework of the National Electromobility Development Plan that was ratified in August of 2009, the Federal German Government plans to have one million electric vehicles conducting transports in Germany by 2020. The financial support of 500 million Euros provided by the Federal German Government is aimed at supporting the short-term goals of the plan. In addition, this funding will support a three-phase plan advancing the viable marketability of electric vehicles, in particular research and development of electric vehicles and their components. Since 2009, mobility projects have been sponsored in eight model regions in Germany in the first phase of the development plan. These projects examine the implementation of a vehicle charging infrastructure, the application of electric vehicles and new city logistics concepts. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether electromobility can still be regarded as a key for solving the problems related to the environment and climate against the backdrop of the ongoing energy transformation in Germany. The electromobility public passenger transport systems and commercial transport already in widespread use today appear to have an astonishingly low level of priority in this discussion at the moment. Up to now, delivery vehicles have only played a subordinate role to cars in these electromobility projects, cp. Swantusch (2010, Pg. 22f.) 2, Simon (2009, Pg. 29) 3, Becker (2010, Pg. 148) 4. The often more clearly defined application purposes and radiuses of such vehicles in comparison to modes of individual transportation, i.e. cars, suggest a tendency for greater potential benefit, justifying and necessitating that new supply and disposal concepts for cities integrated with the inherent characteristics of electromobility delivery vehicles be taken into consideration, cp. Clausen (2011) 5. The application of electromobility makes particular sense in the functional areas of inner-cities and population centres due to the specific environmental situation; its application requires an expansion or reinterpretation of the concept of city logistics, cp. Kümmerlin (2009, Pg. 6) 6. A new concept arose in this regard in the 1990s which was aimed at bundling inner-city delivery flows, but it did not demonstrate sustainable economic success and subsequently was increasingly left by the wayside, cp. Allemeyer (2003, Pg. 5f.) 7 and Kümmerlin (2009) 8.