Do more chargers mean more electric cars?

Stephan Sommer and Colin Vance

No 893, Ruhr Economic Papers from RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen

Abstract: Drawing on panel data from Germany, this paper estimates the relationship between charging infrastructure and the uptake of electric vehicles (EVs). We specify models with fixed effects and instrumental variables to gauge the robustness of our findings in the face of alternative channels through which endogeneity bias may emerge. We find that charging infrastructure has a statistically significant and positive impact on EV uptake, with the magnitude of the estimate increasing with population density. The evidence further suggests that although the incidence of charging points in Germany far exceeds the European Union's recommended minimum ratio of one point to ten EVs, inadequate infrastructure coverage remains a binding constraint on EV uptake. We use the model estimates to illustrate the relative cost effectiveness of normal and fast chargers by region, which supports a geographically differentiated targeting of subsidies.

Keywords: Transport policy; electric vehicles; charging infrastructure; Germany (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H54 H71 Q58 R40 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-eur and nep-tre
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/231319/1/1749298996.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:rwirep:893

DOI: 10.4419/96973033

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Ruhr Economic Papers from RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().