Identifying bottlenecks in charging infrastructure of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles through agent-based traffic simulation

We investigate here the effects of charging infrastructure such as number of charging poles, cables, delays, battery capacity, and power restrictions on the e-mileage of electric vehicles. We aim at identifying strategies for increasing electric-driven distances and bottlenecks in the infrastructure. For this purpose, an agent-based traffic model is used to simulate the vehicle movement in a city. The analyses are done using plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) and a node/street network typical for Helsinki in Finland. Our findings suggest that the same e-mileage can be reached with fewer charging poles if the poles support charging from several parking slots around them, and the charging cable is switched from one vehicle to the next. The charging power supported by most of the charging stations in Finland, 3.7 kilowatts, seems to be sufficient for workplace charging. The cable switching delay of 45 minutes is likely sufficient for maximizing e-mileage. Finally, the amount of cables required for a multi-slot charging pole is mainly dependent on the cable switching delay.