An Integrated Multi-Criteria Decision Making Approach to Location Planning of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

Electric vehicles (EVs) are recognized as one of 1 the most promising technologies worldwide to address the fossil 2 fuel energy resource crisis and environmental pollution.As the 3 initial work of EV charging station (EVCS) construction, site 4 selection plays a vital role in its whole life cycle, which, however, 5 is a complicated multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) 6 problem involving many conflicting criteria.Therefore, this paper 7 aims to propose a novel integrated MCDM approach by a grey 8 decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) 9 and uncertain linguistic multi-objective optimization by ratio 10 analysis plus full multiplicative form (UL-MULTIMOORA) for 11 determining the most suitable EVCS site in terms of multiple 12 interrelated criteria.Specifically, the grey DEMATEL method is 13 used to determine criteria weights and the UL-MULTIMOORA 14 model is employed to evaluate and select the optimal site.15 Finally, an empirical example in Shanghai, China, is presented to 16 demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed 17 approach.The results show that the proposed approach is a 18 useful, practical, and effective way for the optimal location of 19 EVCSs.20