Quantifying the Tangible Value of Public Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure

The lack of public recharging infrastructure is an important barrier to the growth of the light-duty plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) market. Because the value of charging infrastructure is uncertain, especially during the early stage of market growth when low usage is more likely, it is difficult for decision makers to decide how much to invest in public charging stations. Quantifying the value of public charging infrastructure is essential for estimating the benefits to current PEV owners and projecting the effect on future PEV sales. This report estimates consumers’ willingness to pay for public charging infrastructure based solely on the associated tangible value to current and potential PEV owners utility maximization. A basic theory of the tangible value of charging infrastructure is developed as a function of PEV type, range, recharging time, and existing infrastructure. Existing simulation studies provide functional relationships that measure the ability of charging infrastructure to enable additional miles of electrified travel. The willingness to pay for increased miles driven on electricity is then derived from econometric studies. The result is a set of three functions that can be used to calculate the willingness to pay for public charging infrastructure as a function of vehicle range, existing charging infrastructure, energy prices, income, and annual vehicle travel. Results show that the magnitude of willingness to pay for public electric vehicle charging is typically thousands of dollars. While this report quantifies the tangible value of public PEV recharging infrastructure from a consumer perspective, future work will assess overall consumer and societal benefits of charging infrastructure in supporting PEV adoption and decarbonizing the transportation sector.