Assessing the Potential for Public Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure in Chicago to Offset Lack of Residential Charging

Much has been discussed about whether a sufficient level of charging infrastructure is in place to support the increasing sales of plug-in electric vehicles. The lack of publicly accessible charging stations for electric vehicles may particularly discourage people from purchasing electric vehicles if they are unable to charge an electric vehicle at home. This study focuses on the greater Chicago metropolitan area to model scenarios of potential demand for and supply of publicly accessible charging stations, especially near homes, to assess to what extent the current public charging infrastructure can offset lack of home charging availability and where additional public charging may be needed. The authors find that the daily aggregate potential demand for public charging is in excess of the supply, distributed lognormally across the census tracts of the study area. Given certain assumptions including a 5% plug-in vehicle adoption rate, the authors also find that the magnitude of daily potential excess demand for public charging per census tract is not very large (median of 138 electrified miles). For public charging, supply exceeded potential demand in less than 5% of the census tracts. Sensitivity analysis shows that potential demand is heavily dependent on plug-in vehicle adoption rates and that supply is heavily dependent on the operating capacity reached by public charging stations. DC fast chargers contribute significantly to supply, but only if they are often in use.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADC80 Standing Committee on Alternative Transportation Fuels and Technologies.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Junaid, Syed Uzair
  • Traut, Elizabeth J
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2016-1-10 to 2016-1-14
• Date: 2016

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 21p
• Monograph Title: TRB 95th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accessibility; Demand; Electric vehicle charging; Infrastructure; Public works
• Geographic Terms: Chicago (Illinois)
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Energy; Highways; Vehicles and Equipment; I10: Economics and Administration; I15: Environment; I21: Planning of Transport Infrastructure; I90: Vehicles;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01589857
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 16-4573
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 4 2016 4:59PM