The state of play in electric vehicle charging services – A review of infrastructure provision, players, and policies

This paper reviews the market for electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure; it focuses on the types of existing charging, the main functions and actors in the market and the future policy actions required for widespread expansion. Electric vehicles represent a key technology in the mitigation of transportation greenhouse gas emissions and ambitious EV adoption targets have been set by many governments by 2030 and beyond. The rollout of EV charging infrastructure is vital in achieving this goal, as the uptake of EVs is linked to the level of coverage of EV chargers. To date, both the public and private sectors have been involved in the provision of charging stations and it is timely to consider the roles of the different actors in this market. We consider whether EV charging infrastructure is a public good or private asset and address the issues of the location of future chargers, the deployment models needed to develop, operate and own charging infrastructure, and finally the policy context for the development of charging infrastructure. We find that clear roles should be assigned to the individual public and private actors and funders, in order to achieve efficient development of the required infrastructure for large-scale EV deployment.