Evaluating the Electrification of Vehicle Fleets Using the Veins Framework

The simulative performance evaluation of future Intelligent Transport Systems (ITSs) is a challenging task. New mobility patterns, induced by car sharing or autonomous vehicles, the switch towards electric or hydrogen vehicles, and the communication between vehicles (and infrastructure) are believed to change road traffic as we know it. Investigating new applications and protocols, or finding answers to strategic questions— like the optimal placement of charging infrastructure—is often done by means of simulation. The biggest challenge is the development of realistic models that are required for these simulations in order to produce meaningful results. The case study discussed in this paper involves a company maintaining a vehicle fleet of one hundred vehicles. In this article we will discuss how we extend and deploy the Veins framework [1], which couples OMNeT++ [2] and SUMO [3], to help in the process of electrifying this vehicle fleet, i.e., replacing combustion engine cars with electric vehicles to save money and lower CO2 emissions.