Expectations Towards Charging Infrastructure as Buying Motive for Electrical Cars

Abstract

The use of electric cars has increased in recent years and has an accelerating development. Despite its advantages and growing trends, it still faces the challenge of limited autonomy range of batteries and under developed infrastructure. Both aspects are key factors in the decision of consumers to buy an electric car. In order to do so, consumers have to feel comfortable with the autonomy range of their electric car and the possibility to reload it, by having a well-developed charging stations infrastructure. Our paper deals with the perception of consumers regarding the risks associated with the limited autonomy of cars and expectation towards charging infrastructure. In a quantitative study, we analyze from two perspective the level of consumers’ comfort related to the autonomy of their electrical mobility. On the one hand we analyze the different perception related to the autonomy of the electric car. On the other hand, we analyze the expectation towards the infrastructure of charging stations. As expected, consumers feel more comfortable with autonomy ranges of more than 500 kilometers for electric cars. For the charging infrastructure, consumers prefer distances shorter than 50 kilometers between charging stations, in order to feel comfortable.