Understanding the impact of public charging infrastructure on the consideration to purchase an electric vehicle in California

This research tests an implicit assumption on investment in plug-in
electric vehicle (PEV) charging infrastructure: people who are not already
interested in PEVs will see public PEV charging and become interested in
PEVs. Data from a survey of car-owning households in California are
combined with data on public PEV charging and PEV registrations to
estimate a structural equation model of the extent to which participants
have considered acquiring a battery electric vehicle (BEV) or plug-in
hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), and whether participants report seeing PEV
charging. The model controls for socio-economic and demographic measures
and participants’ awareness, knowledge, and assessments of PEVs, and the
known correlation between PEV registrations and public charging locations.
Using logistic ordinal regression we also assess whether charger density
near workplaces affects the results. All results contradict the assumption
that people will see charging infrastructure and that more charging—rather
than more people seeing charging—means more people will consider
purchasing a BEV or PHEV. Rather, prior interest and positive assessments
of PEVs, allow people to see PEV charging. In short, interest in PEVs is a
prerequisite to people seeing PEV charging.