A Random Parameters Latent Class Analysis to Estimate the Value of Free Charging Bundle in Electric Vehicle Purchases

Abstract

Although there has been a sudden surge of interest in the Electric Vehicle (EV) market due to climate change and sustainability concerns, their regular users are still a minority. As policymakers and businesses consider expanding EV infrastructure and updating the pricing structures to increase EV demand, there is limited guidance on the value that consumers place on free charging. Using a representative sample of 250 individuals from the US, the project proposed finding out the potential consumer 'value of free charging' as a function of dollars per charging event, exclusively for public charging infrastructures, by employing an adaptive labelled stated preference (SP) survey and a mixed logit model. This paper finds willingness-to-pay for free charging bundles that range from about $1100/year to $3000/year which is well below the average cost of EV fueling (~$500) and conventional vehicle fueling (~$1200) in the United States.