Electric Vehicle Charging and Driving Behavior

In this paper, we examine the charging and driving behavior from over 6000 electric vehicles from 14 metropolitan areas across the U.S, for over 2.3 million charging sessions and 3.3 million driving trips. The study investigates when and where people charge, including the use of different charger types (level 1, level 2 or DC Fast) and the frequency of charging. We also explore the extent of EV usage and driving patterns, including annual vehicle mileage, trip length, and daily driving behavior. We observe peak midnight charging, with 66% of charging occurring at home and a mean start state-of-charge at 49%. EV users also charge four times in a typical week. They drive, on average, 16,392 km annually. They also tend to take longer trips during weekends, with an average of 46.7km per day compared to 43.5km on weekdays. These behavioral insights are critical for policy design shaping the transportation sector, charging infrastructural planning and energy management programs to support EV adoption and meet decarbonization goals.