Introducing charging infrastructure for electric cars

Electric mobility is one of the most promising solutions towards decarbonizing the transport sector, especially in cities. It is favourable to use zero – emission vehicles, as conventional cars emit pollution, generate noise, and release particulate matter. Although electric vehicles (EVs) are infrastructure dependent, the distribution grid for electricity is available almost everywhere in Sweden. This basic prerequisite is therefore creating a favourable opportunity. Dependence upon public charging infrastructure will vary greatly among EV owners. For those that do not have a private parking space, public charging is inevitable, whilst others may charge at home or at work. However, to facilitate the large-scale adoption of EV’-s, the presence of public charging is of great importance. This thesis combines the theoretical framework and practical implications of EVs and charging infrastructure from both a general perspective and through a case study of Landskrona, Sweden. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are used to identify suitable placements for standard, accelerated and fast charging stations. Inverse Distance Weighted analysis (IDW), based on the number of potential customers - people living, working or travelling within in the area, is used as a tool to compute the suitability. The number of people and other chosen criteria are layered on top of each other in GIS and the analysis results in suitability maps for different charging stations. The maps are made on a raster basis using IDW, and cover the whole municipality in the first stage. As a second stage, results from a workshop with the main stakeholders are presented. The third stage presents identified placements of charging infrastructure on a local scale that combines results from the first and second stages of the process. The suitability of charging station placement is analyzed for the present (2016) as well as for the near future (2020), which takes into account proposed development of the municipality