Study on location decision framework of electric vehicle battery swapping station: Using a hybrid MCDM method

Abstract

Battery swapping station (BSS) is a new mode of supplying power for electric vehicle (EV). As the pre-stage of BSS construction, location decision problem plays an important role in its whole life cycle, which directly affects the economic profits. However, most of the existing researches are about its operation and management problem. Therefore, this paper proposes a site selection framework for the BSS based on MCDM (Multi-criteria decision making) method. Firstly, three new criteria are considered and the criteria system is established on the basis of existing research. Then, considering the information inadequacies in the decision-making process, triangular fuzzy numbers are adopted to deal with uncertainties. Afterwards, in view of the strong dependence among criteria, the fuzzy DEMATEL (Decision Making Trail and Evaluation Laboratory) method is applied to determine the weights of criteria. And then, the FOWA (Fuzzy ordered Weighted Averaging) operator is adopted to aggregate the evaluation values on alternatives of experts and the fuzzy MULTIMOORA (Multi-Objective Optimization by Ratio Analysis plus the Full Multiplicative Form) approach is used to rank the alternatives. Finally, a case in Beijing, China with sensitivity analysis and comparison results also illustrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed approach. This paper provides a critical tool for investors to select the most appropriate alternative.