1 May I? Enabling the Sharing of Private e-Vehicle Charging Infrastructure

This paper investigates the feasibility and potential benefits of private charging infrastructure (CI) sharing for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in Germany. With the growing adoption of BEVs, the need for accessible and efficiently used CI increases. Although private charging stations, or ‘wallboxes’, are abundant, they are underutilized and mostly only accessible to their owners. This presents an opportunity to increase publicly accessible CI density through private CI sharing mechanisms. Therefore, we explore these mechanisms together with the preferences and perceptions of relevant stakeholders, using a mixed- methods approach. This approach includes both semi-structured interviews with industry pioneers and participatory workshops with BEV owners and potential adopters. From the perspective of (potential) BEV drivers, the importance of the following five fundamental objectives is studied (in descending order): unrestricted mobility, ease of use, profitability/costs, social well-being, and sustainability. Our analysis identifies key design principles for successful CI sharing schemes, including flexible access models, fair pricing mechanisms, and digital booking systems. These principles can improve CI availability by increasing the use of private wallboxes, while addressing user concerns such as security, billing, and reliability. By exploring the potential of different sharing scheme designs, we provide new insights into the creation of user-centric, sustainable CI sharing solutions. These insights can guide mobility service providers and policy makers in fostering an effective and widely accepted wallbox sharing ecosystem, thereby supporting the diffusion of private BEVs contributing to the decarbonization of the mobility sector.