Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Coverage: A Study of Slovenia

Abstract

To promote the penetration of electric vehicles (EVs), it is of great importance to plan and construct charging stations rationally. In this sense, the state of Slovenia's charging station coverage was analysed. Using discrete and network geographic information system (GIS) models, with ArcGIS software, the density of electric vehicle charging stations (EVCSs), geographic distribution, nearness along a street network, and clustering analyses were performed. A survey conducted among Slovenian users of EVs supported the GIS analysis. It was found out that the distribution of EVCSs has an east-northeast to west-southwest directional trend. Only 13% of EVCSs are accessible from the nearest motorway at a distance of 500 meters or less. An insight into intrinsic clustering structure revealed 11 clusters of EVCSs from which the most distinct is the cluster on the area of Ljubljana. The scientific contribution of the research is in the integration of GIS, spatial analysis and the results of a survey to study the coverage of EVCSs in a certain region. Spatial analyses are carefully selected, and, in complementarity, give a comprehensive picture of EVCSs coverage. The research is important for further spatial planning of EVCSs.

Keywords

• electric vehicle charging stations
• geographic information systems
• Slovenia
• spatial analysis