Electric vehicle charging network in Europe: An accessibility and deployment trends analysis

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2021.102813Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • The paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the EV charging network in Europe.

  • We combine crowd sourced charging stations data, accessibility data and algorithms.

  • We produce maps of the travel time to the nearest charging station.

  • Competition in local charging markets is assessed based on the number of operators.

  • Results show that stark inequalities persist across and within countries.

Abstract

If coupled with a low-carbon electricity mix, electric vehicles (EVs) can represent an important technology for transport decarbonization and local pollutants abatement. Yet, to ensure large-scale EVs adoption, an adequate charging stations network must be developed. This paper provides the first comprehensive bottom-up analysis of the EV charging network in Europe. Combining a crowd-sourced database of charging stations with accessibility data and algorithms, we produce maps of the travel time to the most accessible EV charging station across Europe, we evaluate the charging points density and the number of active operators in different areas. We find that although recent years have witnessed a notable expansion of the EV charging network, stark inequalities persist across and within countries, both in terms of accessibility and of the charging points available to users. Our results allow for a better understanding of some of the key challenges ahead for ensuring mass EVs adoption throughout Europe and thus potentially reducing the environmental impact of the transport sector.

Keywords

Electric vehicles
Charging
Accessibility
Public charging
GIS

Code and data availability

The R and Google Earth Engine Javascript code to replicate the analysis and the figures are publicly hosted at https://github.com/giacfalk/EV_charging_network_accessibility_analysis. The repository includes references to retrieve the input data.

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