An Intelligently Controlled Charging Model for Battery Electric Trucks in Drayage Operations

California has set a goal for all drayage trucks operating in the state to be zero-emitting by 2035. In order to achieve this goal, drayage operators would need to transition 100% of their fleets to zero-emission vehicles such as battery electric trucks (BETs). This article presents an intelligently controlled charging model for BETs that minimizes charging costs while optimizing subsequent tour completion. To develop this model, real-world activity data from a drayage truck fleet operating in Southern California was combined with a two-stage clustering technique to identify trip and tour patterns. The energy consumption for each trip and tour was then simulated for BETs with a battery capacity of 565 kWh using a 150 kW charging power level. Home base charging load profiles were generated using the proposed charging model, subject to constraints of the energy needed to complete the next subsequent tour and Time-of-Use energy cost rates. A sensitivity analysis evaluated three scenarios: a passive scenario with a 5% state-of-charge (SOC) constraint after completing the subsequent tour, an average scenario with a 50% SOC constraint, and an aggressive scenario with an 80% SOC constraint. Results indicated that the 80% SOC constraint scenario achieved the lowest charging cost. However, it also yielded the lowest tour completion rate (51%). In contrast, the 5% SOC constraint scenario registered the highest tour completion rate. These results revealed that 96% of the tours could be successfully completed using the intelligently controlled charging model. The remaining tours were infeasible, indicating that the available time at the home base was inadequate for charging the necessary energy for the next tour. In terms of total costs, the scenario with a 5% SOC constraint resulted in an annual cost of approximately $40,000, whereas the 80% SOC scenario nearly doubled that amount.