Are consumers in China’s major cities happy with charging infrastructure for electric vehicles?

Extensive charging infrastructure deployment is the crucial link to the large-scale development of electric vehicles. As consumers are the ultimate users of the charging infrastructure, comprehensive and in-depth insight into consumer preferences and choosing tendencies for charging infrastructure is of great practical significance. This paper utilizes the micro-survey data conducted in the four most developed first-tier cities in China to quantitatively explore the factors influencing consumer satisfaction with charging infrastructure. The empirical results indicate that consumers who are young, are insensitive to charging price, have long driving distance, prefer to charge at night, tolerate charging waiting in line, and accept long charging time are more inclined to be satisfied with the charging infrastructure. Then the consumer preferences for public or private charging infrastructure are further explored. The results show that consumers with high-income level, tolerance of waiting in line and long driving distance tend to choose public charging infrastructure. But consumers who prefer charging at night and are sensitive to charging price are more inclined to be satisfied with the private charging infrastructure. The heterogeneity of individual performance was demonstrated by marginal effect analysis. Finally, the discussion on the installation willingness and charging price preference of consumers is conducted.