Charging behaviour and range anxiety in long-distance EV travel: an adaptive choice design study

Abstract This paper presents a novel adaptive stated choice experiment to capture range anxiety during long-distance travel. It is assumed that respondents have forward-looking properties allowing them to select from a set of charging alternatives along the route or postpone charging for a later (choice) stage. Data was collected among members of the Danish electric car association. Based on this data, we develop a mixed logit model that reveals several interesting findings. First, we quantify a relationship between the probability to charge and the remaining range. Secondly, we find that range anxiety, and thereby battery utilisation between recharges is indeed a heterogeneous quantity that varies among user groups. Tesla drivers and individuals below 50 years of age are less prone to range anxiety compared to other segments. Finally, the results suggest that charging at the early stages of a trip is indeed likely even when the battery level is high.