Empirical Analysis of Electric Vehicles’ Charging Patterns: Case Study from Shanghai

Automotive electrification is a vital component of the carbon-neutrality agenda. To counter the influence of shrinking public incentives for purchasing electric vehicles (EVs), it is crucial to deepen the understanding of the existing users’ use cases and clear the barriers for potential EV owners in daily usage. To this end, our study analyzes an 11-month usage data from a large sample of EVs, including 3,777 battery EVs and 5,973 plug-in hybrid EVs. Based on their daily travel intensity, the EVs are clustered into two groups used primarily for private and commercial purposes. We leverage the data to uncover how, when, and where users in each group charge their EVs; investigate EVs’ energy consumption efficiency and its relationship to charging; and discuss EV-related policy implications. The outcome of this study may aid in the development of more targeted EV promotion policies and thus contributes to the carbon neutrality.