Promoting green transportation under the belt and Road Initiative: Locating charging stations considering electric vehicle users’ travel behavior

Motivated by the worldwide promotion of green transportation, this study aims to determine the optimal location of multi-type electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, e.g., fast and slow charging stations, for maximizing the covered traffic flows under a limited budget while considering EV users' partial charging behavior and elastic demand. A two-phase approach is proposed to efficiently solve this problem. The efficacy of the proposed two-phase approach is demonstrated by numerical experiments on the highway network of Zhejiang Province, China, and policies towards promoting transport electrification are discussed from various aspects. In particular, our policy suggestions are fivefold: (a) how to save investment in station construction by understanding EV users’ tolerance for travel cost deviation; (b) how to determine the budget policy to ensure an efficient utilization of the investment; (c) how to optimally select the location and type of charging stations; (d) how to devise the operation regulations based on the workload of each station; as well as (e) how to plan the station construction in a mid- or long-term implementation. We also discuss some prospective challenges and opportunities regarding charging station construction and operations in the context of continuous innovation in energy and communication technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT).