From Range Anxiety to Charge Anxiety: Operations Scholars’ Reflections on the State of Electric Vehicles’ Public Charging Infrastructure

Prior research identified range anxiety as a major factor limiting the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). However, by driving over 15,000 kilometres (∼10,000 miles) in various electric vehicles in Canada, United States, and Europe and relying on public charging, we observed that today’s EV drivers have charge anxiety instead. Charge anxiety comes from five factors: hardware issues: will the charger’s plug fit my vehicle and, overall, “does it work”; software factors: will my app/card work at the specific charger; location issues: is a charger conveniently located; time issues: how long will charging take; and price issues: how much will it cost. Motivated by these observations, we present three empirically grounded analytical models, each fitted to real data from industry partners, to analyze key issues that we, as operations management scholars, see in the current state and potential trajectory of public charging infrastructure. The first is a discrete-event simulation (a “digital twin”) to assess the realistic speed of fast charging. The second is a back-of-the-envelope Little’s Law calculation to estimate the scale of a fast-charging station needed to match the throughput of a typical gas station. The third is another discrete-event simulation that incorporates realistic driver arrival patterns across different types of days in a year. We conclude with insights and research opportunities stemming from our observations and models. Funding: A. Ovchinnikov acknowledges the support from Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) [Insight Grant 435-2023-0466].