Joint Route Optimization of Electric Modular Buses and Mobile Charging Vehicles Considering Charging-on-the-move

the mobile vehicle-to-vehicle charging vehicles (MCV) for electric modular buses (EMB) have greatly advanced in recent years, where the MCV is an electric vehicle with an extra battery that can charge another electric vehicle on the move. In this study, we propose a mobile charging vehicle routing problem for EMBs, in which both MCVs and charging stations are used to charge electric modular buses. This study proposes a joint optimization model for EMBs and MCVs, where the CPLEX solver was used to solve the constructed case to verify the feasibility and validity of the proposed model, and the results show a 10.5% cost reduction compared to the traditional electric modular bus system. Meanwhile, the sensitivity test is designed to reveal the effects of the number of serviced trips on the performance of the electric modular bus system.