Evaluation of batteries supply chain configurations for electric and hybrid vehicles

Public authorities have been issuing strict measures to decrease the pollutant emissions over the last years. Thus, hybrid and electric vehicles are more and more attracting the attention of the automotive industry. In such a context, batteries are the key elements for the propulsion of these vehicles. Therefore, the related Supply Chain (SC) appears to be crucial and many studies focus their attention on it. This SC has to be examined thoroughly due to the concentration of raw materials in limited areas, and the transportation and storage conditions that have to maintain the initial performance. In this field, there is a lack of studies considering the SC organization from battery manufacturers to car makers. In order to contribute to such a stream of research, the proposed paper presents a case study aimed at defining a suitable battery SC configuration to produce a hybrid vehicle. In particular, the purpose of the study is the assessment of the SC operations for batteries to ensure that the process is effective and efficient. In order to achieve this objective, four scenarios are defined to represent possible logistics flows from the battery supplier to the car assembly line, differing in battery warehouse location. For every scenario the main logistics cost are considered under different demand levels for identifying the most effective one. The results show that the configuration with a direct shipment from supplier to plant without a halfway warehouse is the best solution in terms of cost, even if the risk of supply increases. The proposed study could support automotive companies to design their SC through the implementation of efficient solutions, by taking into account the logistics inbound costs. The development of this case study might encourage future research to highlight the importance of the SC for low impact vehicles.