Multiple roads ahead: How charging behavior can guide charging infrastructure roll-out policy

Abstract

A key challenge for the roll-out of public charging infrastructure is that electric vehicles are needed to function both as a clean mode of transportation and as part of a sustainable electricity system, while being cost-effective. Translating these high-level policy goals to a coherent roll-out strategy is not trivial. We address this by analyzing local charging behavior and linking behavior indicators to specific policy measures through a decision tree. We analyze how policy measures for: (1) increasing the number of charge points, (2) reducing hogging, (3) vehicle-to-grid, (4) overnight charging, and (5) solar charging align with overall goals and characteristics of specific neighborhoods. More specifically, we analyze a dataset containing one million charging sessions in the Netherlands, and (1) link this data to neighborhood characteristics and (2) evaluate the coherency of policy mixes. Our analysis shows great spatial variation in charging behavior and consequently in the suitable policy mixes.