Investigating the Sustainable Development of Charging Stations for Plug-in Electric Vehicles: A System Dynamics Approach

This paper introduces a System Dynamics (SD) simulation approach to analyze the factors affecting the development of charging stations. The study focuses on accessibility, investment cost, charging cost, and V2G desirability as key factors. The research incorporates the behavior of both PEV owners and investors to examine their impact on charging point development. A hybrid simulation model and decision-making framework are developed to assess the sustainable growth and accessibility of public chargers, using a specific use case. The study investigates the significant factors that influence the accessibility and sustainable growth of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), aligning with the need to explore high market penetrations of public chargers in the transportation sector. The emphasis is on evaluating different policies to enhance electric vehicle adoption by influencing the accessibility of public charging points. Results from the simulations indicate that level II public chargers are likely to experience faster growth compared to fast chargers. Furthermore, results show that accessibility to the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) in the future at homes can affect the growth rate of public chargers. Moreover, the study’s results suggest that electricity pricing at public charging stations is a crucial determinant for the sustainable growth of these stations.