Charging change: Analysing the UK's electric vehicle infrastructure policies and market dynamics

Abstract

Over the past decades, there has been a rapid adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and a gradual reduction in the number of Gas Stations, aligning with carbon neutrality objectives. Major oil companies, like Shell, are transferring Gas Stations to Charging Stations, supported by UK government incentives to stimulate the charging infrastructure. This paper systematically investigates three key stakeholders: government, investors, and end-users, examining their interactions and the transition of stations, and evaluating the economic intrinsic competition relationships. Integrating the complex networks, it spatially represents the relative positions of stations and designates Gas Stations as potential future locations for Charging Stations. Meanwhile, this paper comprehensively analyses various policies targeting the UK market, applies dual market analysis to compare the simple and complex market structures among policy scenarios, emphasising the necessity for applying complex interactive markets in industrial evaluation. The findings reveal that direct policies targeting Charging Stations exert immediate and positive effects, while indirect policies targeting Gas Stations and consumers demonstrate marginal diminishing effects. Furthermore, subsidies on the EV prices are less effective compared with other policies, like construction subsidies, operation subsidies, etc., highlighting the need for targeted policy designs, to maximise the expansion and efficacy of EVs and Charging infrastructure.