A Geo-Spatial Method for Calculating BEV Charging Inconvenience using Publicly Available Data

Abstract

As governments and the automotive industry push towards electrification, it becomes increasingly critical to address the factors which influence individual car buying decisions. Evidence suggests that operational inconvenience or the perception thereof plays a large role in consumer decisions concerning battery electric vehicles (BEVs). BEV ownership inconvenience and its causal factors have been relatively understudied, rendering efforts to mitigate the issues insufficiently informed. This paper presents a method of producing an empirical equation which relates operational inconvenience to a small number of housing and local electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) infrastructure factors. The paper then further provides a method of applying the equation in a geo-spatial context allowing for the evaluation of the effects of policies in a geographical manner. this method enables future quantitative analyses concerning investment in EVSE infrastructure to be directly sensitive to BEV operational inconvenience due to charging.