An optimal charging station location model with the consideration of electric vehicle's driving range

Reasonable charging station positions are critical to prompt the widespread use of electric vehicles (EVs). This paper proposes a bi-level programming model with the consideration of EV's driving range, for finding the optimal locations of charging stations. In this model, the upper level is to optimize the position of charging stations so as to maximize the path flows that use the charging stations, while the user equilibrium of route choice with the EV's driving range constraint is formulated in the lower level. In order to find the optimal solution of the model efficiently, we reformulate the proposed model as a single-level mathematical program and further linearize it in designing the heuristic algorithm. The model validity is demonstrated with numerical examples on two test networks. It is shown that the vehicle's driving range has a great influence on the optimal charging station locations.