A study of EV charging behavior by a team at Trinity College Dublin has found that, from the household data available, EV users prefer to carry out the majority of their charging at home in the evening—the period of highest demand on the electrical grid indicating that incentivization may be required to shift charging away from this peak grid demand period. In their study, published in the journal Energy Policy, they also found that parking locations were the most popular location for public charging and that fast chargers recorded the highest usage frequencies. This indicates that public fast charging infrastructure is most likely to become commercially viable in the short- to medium-term, they concluded. The study was based on an extensive analysis of public charge event data for the entire island of Ireland since the rollout of the public charging infrastructure began. The analysis of household charging was based on a more limited quantity of household data. Resources Patrick Morrissey, Peter Weldon, Margaret O’Mahony (2015) “Future standard and fast charging infrastructure planning: An analysis of electric vehicle charging behaviour,” Energy Policy, Volume 89, Pages 257-270 doi: 10.1016/j.enpol.2015.12.001
A study by Trinity College Dublin on the charging behaviour of EV owners has proven one point most in the industry already knew: EV users prefer to carry out the majority of their charging at home in the evening, which is obviously the period of highest demand on the electrical grid, indicating that incentives or delays may be required to shift charging away from this peak grid demand period. Furthermore, the study has shown that parking locations were the most popular location for public charging and that fast chargers recorded the highest usage frequencies. This lead the authors to conclude that public fast charging infrastructure is most likely to become commercially viable in the short- to medium-term.