Empirical Research of Business Model of Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructures in Semi-Public Areas

Charging in semipublic area is an alternative to private charging. Through investigating related parties of EV charging infrastructure construction and operation in semipublic areas, which include charging infrastructure operator, property management company (PMC), and EV users, business model of a whole semipublic charging ecosystem is established. Using the actual charging and vehicle data acquired in Sino-German EV charging project, the constructed theoretical business model is verified to simulate and analyze different scenarios. The analysis results show that charging infrastructure operator in semipublic area is hardly to get profit in a short time at current circumstance in China, the payback period of operator will be more than 9 years without any subsidy. PMC who choose building an EV dedicated parking space will get more profits than a non-dedicated one in the long run. EV could save 34.6% energy-related expenses when compared with conventional fuel vehicle when charging in semipublic area. The research results suggest that the government should introduce proper supplement and subsidy policies, to make semipublic charging as an effective supplement and substitution of private charging.