Juan Pérez, Ángel AlejandroMéndez, Carlos AlbertoFaulín Fajardo, JavierArmas, Jesica deGrasman, Scott Erwin2017-11-152017-11-1520161996-107310.3390/en902008610.3390/en9070546https://academica-e.unavarra.es/handle/2454/26144Incluye correcciones [Energies 2016, 9(7), 546; doi:10.3390/en9070546]Current logistics and transportation (L&T) systems include heterogeneous fleets consisting of common internal combustion engine vehicles as well as other types of vehicles using “green” technologies, e.g., plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and electric vehicles (EVs). However, the incorporation of EVs in L&T activities also raise some additional challenges from the strategic, planning, and operational perspectives. For instance, smart cities are required to provide recharge stations for electric-based vehicles, meaning that investment decisions need to be made about the number, location, and capacity of these stations. Similarly, the limited driving-range capabilities of EVs, which are restricted by the amount of electricity stored in their batteries, impose non-trivial additional constraints when designing efficient distribution routes. Accordingly, this paper identifies and reviews several open research challenges related to the introduction of EVs in L&T activities, including: (a) environmental-related issues; and (b) strategic, planning and operational issues associated with “standard” EVs and with hydrogen-based EVs. The paper also analyzes how the introduction of EVs in L&T systems generates new variants of the well-known Vehicle Routing Problem, one of the most studied optimization problems in the L&T field, and proposes the use of metaheuristics and simheuristics as the most efficient way to deal with these complex optimization problems.21 p.application/pdfeng© 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license.Electric vehiclesLogistics and transportationGreen vehicle routing problemsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess