Congestion Pricing for Electric Vehicle Charging Stations.

Résumé

Reliable and available charging infrastructure is critical to electrifying the transportation sector. Policymakers and industry players are increasingly focusing on building out charging stations to support the growing electric vehicle fleet. However, potential congestion at charging stations and the complicated and widely-varied tariff structures can hinder their efficient utilization. We collect data on charging station characteristics, prices, and utilization in Switzerland and Germany in 2022-2023 to study the efficiency of pricing in the EV charging industry. We document heterogeneity in tariff structures and levels offered by firms and estimate consumer responses to the different tariffs. We next calculate charging station revenue and levelized costs to assess their profitability. Lastly, we model consumer demand and charging station firms' profits to compute efficient EV charging tariff structures in the presence of congestion. (Work with Jing Li)