Tabu search based solution to the electric vehicle energy efficient routing problem

Electric vehicles are slowly gaining popularity as a viable substitute for fossil fuel powered automobiles. Environmental concerns, energy dependency, and volatile fuel prices have triggered governments and private entities to search for an alternative strategy for the current combustion engine vehicle design. These strategies have led to a marginal market share increase of electric vehicles. Currently vehicle routing algorithms are designed and suited for fossil fueled vehicles. Energy-efficient routing for electric vehicles, on the other hand, requires novel algorithmic solutions. Negative paths costs, battery power and energy limits, and vehicle parameters that are only available at query time, make the task of electric vehicle energy-efficient routing a challenging problem. In this paper, we present a Tabu Search-based optimization solution to the energy-efficient routing problem for electric vehicle. Simulation results show the improvements in the energy consumption of the electric vehicle when applied to a start-to-destination routing problem.