Study On Crowdfunding’s Promoting Effect On The Expansion Of Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure

The market penetration of electric vehicle is subject to the capacity of charging infrastructure greatly,however the development of charging infrastructure is influenced by the economic incentives and the high upfront cost and long payback period of those project has been main hindrances for private capital to enter this market,thus inventing innovative construction and operation mode is essential to a rapid expansion of charging infrastructure market.In this study,the advantages of crowdfunding method for financing the construction of electric vehicle(EV)charging piles were focused.A three-stage sequential game model was developed considering the electricity supplier,the infrastructure operator and crowdfunders to analyze the performance of crowdfunding method comparing with traditional subsidy policy.The analysis result shows that crowdfunding can increase charging piles construction amount as well as each participants’ profit and crowdfunding’s promoting effect equals the effect of supplying 20%~40% subsidy for construction fee.The sensitivity analysis shows that unit construction cost of charging piles,the expected value and variability of charging amount significantly influence the construction amount of charging piles.The above numerical results show that crowdfunding is a simple but efficient way to boost the penetration of charging piles.