Fair assignment of urban–rural electric vehicle shared charging using queuing theory

The widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is crucial for decarbonising transportation and achieving global net-zero goals. However, a significant challenge in this transition is ensuring equitable access to charging infrastructure, particularly when addressing the simultaneous charging needs of urban residents and rural visitors in urban areas. This is a critical aspect often overlooked in existing literature. This study formulates the problem of implementing a charging system for urban areas that can support both urban and rural users as a multi-objective integer linear programming (ILP) model. This approach uniquely achieves fairness by reducing congestion in urban charging systems to ensure sufficient charging capacity for rural residents visiting the area. Specifically, the expected mean waiting time for all users is minimised. Concurrently, the travel distance for urban residents to their assigned charging stations is also minimised, thereby ensuring sufficient charging capacity for rural residents visiting the area. An ILP solver was employed to evaluate the proposed model across various problem instances, including a detailed case study of Cardiff city, UK. Results demonstrate the significant advantages of this assignment model: for a simulated scenario with 36 charging stations in Cardiff’s urban centre, the model reduced the mean waiting time by approximately 7 min per user (from 16.6 to 9.6 min) and decreased the average travel distance for urban users by 2 . 25 km (from 3 . 6 to 1 . 35 km ) compared to a baseline approach. Further experiments across different charging station densities consistently showed that the optimisation model reduced mean waiting times by up to 12.8 min and average travel distances by up to 3 . 3 km . This research provides a robust, data-driven framework that enables more equitable and efficient EV charging infrastructure planning, facilitating a truly inclusive transition to electric vehicles for both urban and rural communities. • New ILP model integrating queuing theory and the assignment problem for a fair EV charging system. • Addresses urban–rural charging divide by reducing urban charging system congestion. • Cardiff case study: Mean charge point waiting time is cut by 7 mins (from 16.6 to 9.6) per user. • Decreased mean urban user travel distance to charge stations by 2.25 km (from 3.6 to 1.35). • Facilitates equitable EV transition for urban residents and rural visitors.