Stakeholders' perspectives on future electric vehicle charging infrastructure developments

Charging infrastructure development is vital for the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). Yet, on the surface, there seems to be significant disagreement about when, how and which kind of charging infrastructure should be developed and most importantly, for what reasons. These reasons are concealed in the stakeholders' perspective on the future. Differences in stakeholders' perspectives regarding expectations on the future EV charging infrastructure may be expected, but should they prove irreconcilable they may stall the roll-out. However, to date, it remains unknown what these stakeholders' perspectives are, how they are aligned across stakeholders, which topics are heavily debated and which are agreed upon. This study uses Q-methodology to identify different perspectives on the future of roll-out of EV charging infrastructure. The analysis shows that stakeholders mainly differ in the extent fast charging should play an important role, the degree smart charging should be the standard in charging and how much government should intervene with infrastructure roll-out. There is a consensus on the importance of interoperability of charging stations. The four different perspectives were supported across different stakeholders, which supports the idea that perspectives are not strongly linked to the stakeholders' interests.