Impacts of charging infrastructure on electric vehicle ownership : a case study of Shenzhen

Abstract

The flourishing development of automobile industry has created significant convenience and efficiency to people’s life. It should be realized that the automobile development also causes problems, such as safety problem, environmental pollution and fossil fuel scarcity and so on so forth. In order to deal with the environmental problems, a new type of automobile, the Electric Vehicle (EV), which uses electricity as the power for propulsion, is innovated and widely promoted throughout the world. EVs can not only fulfill the travel need of people, but also can protect the environment. However, the usage behavior of EV is different with the one of conventional vehicle, especially in the aspect of electricity charging. As a result, the charging infrastructure plays an important role in the frequent usage and wide promotion of EVs. Shenzhen, as one of the first batch of pilot cities of the demonstration of new energy vehicles and the pilot cities of subsidy provision for private new energy vehicles’ purchasers, has encouraged its promotion by policy supports since 2009 from the prospective of both EV and charging infrastructure. It is aimed to understand the impacts of charging infrastructure on EV ownership of Shenzhen residents and to reveal the preferred characteristics of charging infrastructure which can influence people’s EV ownership decision in this study. This study mainly consists of the literature review, and the results of questionnaire survey and interview. The literature review contributes to knowing about the current development and policies of EVs and charging infrastructure in Shenzhen. Three first-hand data collection methods include observation, questionnaire survey and interview. The questionnaire survey with both existing EV owners and non-EV owners is the most important method, which is used to understand Shenzhen residents’ opinions and concerns. Based on the descriptive analysis and statistical analysis, this study concludes the significant influence level of charging infrastructure on Shenzhen residents’ willingness of EV ownership while it is not the most influential factor. It is also found that the charging rate, the availability of at-home charging and the number of charging infrastructure rank as the top three factors which have most impacts on the EV ownership willingness. The recommendations and suggestions on charging infrastructure are put forward based on the survey and interview results. Nonetheless, this study also has some limitations such as small sample size. Therefore, it is expected that the future research can work on the improvement of questionnaire design and the increase of sample size.