Report: Shenzhen, China Serves as Example of Effective Electric Delivery Vehicle Deployment

Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) today released its latest report that explores Shenzhen's experience in the deployment of electric freight delivery vehicles and explores one of the most important questions to accelerating adoption of EVs in urban delivery: how to effectively provide charging infrastructure.

In “A New EV Horizon: Insights from Shenzhen's Path to Global Leadership in Electric Logistics Vehicles,” RMI uses a data set with complete driving records of more than 10,000 electric delivery vehicles in the city of Shenzhen, supplemented by dozens of interviews with the companies that own and operate those vehicles, to analyze in how those vehicles are charging and what can be done to improve the charging system.

In the last three years, nearly 60,000 light trucks and vans have been deployed for urban freight movement in Shenzhen, representing approximately 35% of the city's overall fleet of urban delivery vehicles.

RMI has identified several insights for how to create a better charging climate and support further uptake of electric freight delivery vehicles in all global cities:

• Policy that facilitates better integration of data into city planning processes could help optimize the location of charging infrastructure around areas of high demand and where the grid has capacity.
• Current electricity pricing encourages charging practices that are unsustainable for the grid in the long run, as evidenced by the preference for fast charging during peak times of demand. Using insights from existing charging data, smarter strategies in electricity pricing could support a broader distribution of charging in time and space and create a more sustainable pattern of energy usage.
• Data providers partnering to provide a unified source of information will address current inefficiencies and ease the friction that vehicle operators currently face when charging.

Shenzhen has managed to cut carbon emissions by more than 1.35 million tons a year, according to research by the Washington Post. The city has already shown that it is willing to do what is needed to promote electric vehicle adoption.