Could fast battery charging effectively mitigate range anxiety in electric vehicle usage?Evidence from large-scale data on travel and charging in Beijing

Range anxiety is a psychological condition in which people worry that the limited battery capacity of electric vehicles (EV) will result in running out of power before reaching their destination. In this paper, with the application of quantile regression, 1.7 million charging and driving records for EVs in Beijing are used to explore how fast charging impacts on range anxiety. As state of charge (SOC) is highly related to range anxiety, this paper mainly focuses on the relationship between the charging rate and the SOC, which can be further extended to range anxiety. The results show that the charging rate is negatively related to the SOC, which indicates that fast charging could improve the charging rate and then reduce both the SOC and range anxiety. Temperature positively moderates the effects of the charging rate on range anxiety, which indicates that fast charging would be more effective in reducing range anxiety when it is a cold weather. Additionally, the quantity of charging piles negatively moderates the relationship between the charging rate and range anxiety. However, range anxiety may also influence the choice of charging rate, which might bring a reverse causality problem between the charging rate and the SOC, and result in an exaggerated significance of our analysis. After discussing the endogeneity of our regression results, we believe the possible bias is still totally acceptable.

Automated summary

This study examines the impact of fast charging on range anxiety through analyzing the charging and driving data of EVs in Beijing. The results suggest that fast charging can reduce range anxiety, particularly in cold weather. The quantity of charging piles also influences the relationship between charging rate and range anxiety.