Unveiling the bidirectional link between electric vehicle sales and charging infrastructure: Evidence from 95 cities in China

Jianfeng Guo; Binbin Xu; Qi Cao; Siyao Liu; Fu Gu; Xuemei Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2024.111245

Unveiling the bidirectional link between electric vehicle sales and charging infrastructure: Evidence from 95 cities in China

iScience. 2024 Oct 24;27(11):111245. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.111245. eCollection 2024 Nov 15.

Authors

Jianfeng Guo^{1

2}, Binbin Xu^{1

2}, Qi Cao^{1

3}, Siyao Liu¹, Fu Gu^{4

5

6}, Xuemei Zhang⁷

Affiliations

¹ Institutes of Science and Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
² School of Public Policy and Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
³ School of Economics & Management, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China.
⁴ Center of Engineering Management, Polytechnic Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310015, China.
⁵ Department of Industrial and System Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
⁶ National Institute of Innovation Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
⁷ College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211521, China.

Abstract

Constructing electric vehicle charging piles (EVCPs) is crucial for promoting electric vehicle (EV) sales. Yet, empirical evidence on the bidirectional relationship between EV sales and public EVCPs is limited, with most related works relying on simulations. We empirically investigate this relationship using panel vector autoregression (PVAR) across 95 Chinese cities from 2018 to 2022. Results show EVCPs significantly boost EV sales, especially in colder regions. Higher air pollution and purchase subsidies inhibit the promoting impact of EV sales on EVCPs. The propelling effect of EVCPs on EV sales is impaired in higher housing prices regions. A significant and positive bidirectional relationship exists between EVCPs and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) sales exists, but not with plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) present. Our findings have implications for stakeholders, such as the construction of fast charging infrastructure under lower temperatures, and differentiated charging demands of EVs with different powertrains need to be addressed.

Keywords: Economics; Energy sustainability; Social sciences.