EVALUATION OF CHARGING STATION LOCATIONS: INFRASTRUCTURE FOR FULLY ELECTRIC SEMI-TRUCKS IN THE U.S.

The world is ever-changing with technological advancement. National economies and private organizations are shifting their infrastructure to adapt to innovation and technology. We are seeing a major shift in our transportation ecosystem as well. Automotive manufacturers are launching fully electric semi-truck (EST) on the road for freight transportation. Electric trucks will have a long-term effect on many industries and the national economy in the United States. Compared to conventional automobiles, the limited range of electric vehicles is a major obstacle. To adapt electric vehicles (EVs) to our transportation system, the U.S. needs a proper charging infrastructure in our grid. Though we have been adapting the passenger EVs, the EST needs larger charging infrastructure capabilities to charge the large batteries of these trucks to complete the journey. The most important aspect is the geographical locations of these mega charging stations along U.S. highways. To analyze the optimal locations of these charging infrastructures, we use the framework from Csiszár et al. (2020), an origin-destination (O-D) data model. OD is classified as the original location of the freight to the end destination. We also use the flow-refueling location model (FRLM) from He et al. (2019). This framework showcases the optimal locations in each route in order to complete the OD pairs. We use data from the U.S. department of energy for the locations of charging stations. Furthermore, we use U.S. department of transportation highway & transportation data to procure the major O-Ds of freight transportation.