SynthCharge: An Electric Vehicle Routing Instance Generator with Feasibility Screening to Enable Learning-Based Optimization and Benchmarking

TL;DR

SynthCharge is a versatile EV routing instance generator that creates diverse, feasible problem instances for benchmarking and evaluating learning-based optimization methods, addressing limitations of static datasets.

Contribution

It introduces a parametric, feasibility-screened generator for EV routing instances with scalable size and configurable features, enabling systematic evaluation of data-driven approaches.

Findings

Generates diverse EVRPTW instances up to 500 customers.

Ensures instance feasibility through a fast screening process.

Facilitates robust benchmarking of neural routing models.

Abstract

The electric vehicle routing problem with time windows (EVRPTW) extends the classical VRPTW by introducing battery capacity constraints and charging station decisions. Existing benchmark datasets are often static and lack verifiable feasibility, which restricts reproducible evaluation of learning-based routing models. We introduce SynthCharge, a parametric generator that produces diverse, feasibility-screened EVRPTW instances across varying spatiotemporal configurations and scalable customer counts. While SynthCharge can currently generate large-scale instances of up to 500 customers, we focus our experiments on sizes ranging from 5 to 100 customers. Unlike static benchmark suites, SynthCharge integrates instance geometry with adaptive energy capacity scaling and range-aware charging station placement. To guarantee structural validity, the generator systematically filters out unsolvable instances through a fast feasibility screening process. Ultimately, SynthCharge provides the dynamic benchmarking infrastructure needed to systematically evaluate the robustness of emerging neural routing and data-driven approaches.