Network-integrated evolutionary analysis for electric vehicle charging infrastructure deployment in the UK

Abstract

Due to the current booming growth of electric vehicles (EVs), the insufficiency of charging infrastructure (CI) distributions has become one of the key obstacles to the potential expansion of the EV market. To further upgrade the Electric vehicles Charging infrastructure (EVCI) in the UK, governments have launched multiple incentives to encourage EVCI deployment and investment from the industry. In order to measure the effectiveness and feasibility of the current policies and seek other potential measurements, this paper applies an evolutionary game analysis integrated with complex network topologies, which aims to probe into the interactions and competitiveness between stakeholders. It contributes to practitioners and academia in the following aspects: (1) thorough insights into EVCI markets by modelling the evolution of EVCI distribution under heterogeneous incentives. (2) an equilibrium of EVCI deployment in the evolution process and elucidates the different impacts of incentives. (3) a whole network involving the main stakeholders, governments, EVCI investors, and end-users, facilitating an effective policy framework.