Enhancing the attractiveness of public EV charging – from a minor role into a real deal through dynamic pricing

Home charging is seen as a key factor for electric vehicle (EV) adoption due to its convenience and affordability. Currently, home charging is usually more affordable than public charging, leading EV users to utilise public charging infrastructure only when necessary. In this paper, a day-ahead electricity price analysis is used to demonstrate that public charging can be relatively affordable compared to home charging and can improve both social and individual EV users’ welfare. This requires the implementation of cost-reflective dynamic pricing that incentivises EV users to utilise public charging whenever cheap electricity, such as surplus renewable energy, is available. Simulations are carried out to show that dynamic cost-reflective pricing can notably increase public charging utilisation while providing economic advantages to EV users and charging site owners (CSOs). The optimal profit margin for CSOs is case-dependent but can be determined using the developed simulation model. For the considered case study, a profit margin of 7.5 cents/kWh leads to the highest additional revenue from EV users who opt for public charging instead of home charging to reduce charging costs.