# Assessing the Opportunity Offered by Electric Vehicles in Performing Service Trips to End Consumers
## 3 Materials and Methods
### The Case Study  
The proposed assessment has been developed through a case study in Rome. It has been assumed that, as described in the next section, Section 4, a set of depots have to serve 75 end consumers in the urban area using traditional and electric LCVs. The delivery of purchased items and their installation is required by each customer. Then, the benefits in terms of pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions and the availability of parking spaces, i.e., two of the main issues in inners areas of the city [50; 53; 54], are assessed.  
In particular, according to the two main trends in city logistics, as shown in Section 2, three scenarios have been defined and assessed (Figure 1):  
* The status quo (_Service pattern_ 1), i.e., the delivery and installation services are performed by LCVs with Internal Combustion Engines (ICEs); then, the environmental impacts and the request for parking is calculated;
* Electrification (_Service pattern_ 2), i.e., pushed to the needs to reduce the environmental impacts of commercial vehicles, delivery and installation services are performed by LCVs with electric engines; then, referring to service pattern 1, the distribution tour, the same vehicle with electric propulsion is used; in this case, the energy consumption has been also calculated;
* Electrification and parking space optimization (_Service pattern_ 3), i.e., pushed by the need to optimize the use of LCVs (which should remain stopped during installation) and the space occupied by their parking, delivery and installation are assumed to be de-coupled; delivery is performed by an LCV and after this, an operator via a cargo e-bike reaches the place and proceeds with the installation. The further evolution of such a service could consider the opportunity to collect the packaging and operate the reverse logistics with significant benefits for recycling and waste collection.  
The energy consumption calculation has significant relevance because it opens the road for the optimization of energy use. In fact, it allows us to correctly size the vehicle (oversizing in terms of the propulsion system would make the choice inefficient) and, above all, allows us to allocate the assessment of the real environmental benefits through subsequent analyses if, for example, that energy was produced, in whole or in part, from fossil and non-renewable sources.  
LCVs could transport large cargo, making them a versatile choice for urban logistics. In this work, an LCV was selected from the market, offering two types of propulsion systems, both a conventional one with an ICE and one with an electric motor (BEV). Among the manufacturer's vehicle configurations and according to the type of vehicle currently used in the city of Rome [18], a large load space version was selected, suitable for transporting household appliances that require installation services. A cargo e-bike with a large cargo compartment was also chosen. The mechanical characteristics of the LCV such as its size, weight, type of wheels and loading volume are shown in Table 1. Mechanical data will be used to calculate the traction effort based on the mechanical forces, such us the aerodynamic drag, rolling resistance and road grade, to formulate a model for estimating energy consumption. Table 1 also shows the technical specifications of the ICE version of the vehicle and those of the BEV version. In the latter case, the battery is lithium-based with nickel-manganese-cobalt chemistry (NMC). For the selected electric LVC, the total energy was also obtained. Therefore, for subsequent analyses, based on the chemistry declared by the manufacturer, it was assumed that the battery pack consists of 85 cells in series. The main characteristics of the cargo e-bike are then shown in Table 2.  
Figure 1: The three patterns of urban freight distribution. Above: an ICE LCV. In the middle: an electric LCV. Below: an electric LCV and cargo e-bikes for services. Orange: LCV routes; Light blue: cargo-ebike routes.