IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i6p2767-d1616594.html

Increasing Electric Vehicle Charger Availability with a Mobile, Self-Contained Charging Station

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Serrano

    (School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Envrioment, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA)

  • Arifa Sultana

    (College of Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering Department, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, USA)

  • Declan Kavanaugh

    (School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA)

  • Hongjie Wang

    (College of Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering Department, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, USA)

Abstract

As the transition to sustainable transportation has accelerated with the rise of electric vehicles (EVs), ensuring drivers have access to charging to maximize the electric miles driven is critical to lowering carbon emissions in the transportation sector. Limited charging station capacity and poor reliability, especially during peak travel times, long-distance travels, holidays, and events, have hindered the adoption of EVs and threaten the progress toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Adaptive, flexible deployment strategies combined with innovative approaches integrating mobility and renewable energy are essential to address these systemic challenges and bridge the current infrastructure gap. To address these challenges, this study proposes a self-contained, mobile charging station (MCS). Designed for rapid deployment, the proposed MCS increases charging capacity during demand surges while minimizing reliance on fossil fuels. The feasibility of integrating a solar canopy with this MCS to further reduce carbon emissions is also studied. This study weighed the pros and cons of differing cell chemistries, sized the battery using data provided by the United States’ largest public CPO, and discussed the feasibility of a solar canopy for off-grid energy.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Serrano & Arifa Sultana & Declan Kavanaugh & Hongjie Wang, 2025. "Increasing Electric Vehicle Charger Availability with a Mobile, Self-Contained Charging Station," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-16, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:6:p:2767-:d:1616594
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/6/2767/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/6/2767/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Flores, Robert J. & Shaffer, Brendan P. & Brouwer, Jacob, 2016. "Electricity costs for an electric vehicle fueling station with Level 3 charging," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 813-830.
    2. Daniel Bernal & Adeeba A. Raheem & Sundeep Inti & Hongjie Wang, 2024. "Assessment of Economic Viability of Direct Current Fast Charging Infrastructure Investments for Electric Vehicles in the United States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-21, August.
    3. Afshar, Shahab & Pecenak, Zachary K. & Barati, Masoud & Disfani, Vahid, 2022. "Mobile charging stations for EV charging management in urban areas: A case study in Chattanooga," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 325(C).
    4. Afshar, Shahab & Macedo, Pablo & Mohamed, Farog & Disfani, Vahid, 2021. "Mobile charging stations for electric vehicles — A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Duan, Sudong & Zhang, Zhonghui & Wang, Zhaojun & Xiong, Xiaoyue & Chen, Xinhan & Que, Xiaoyu, 2025. "A study on mobile charging station combined with integrated energy system: Emphasis on energy dispatch strategy and multi-scenario analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    2. An, Sihai & Qiu, Jing & Lin, Jiafeng & Yao, Zongyu & Liang, Qijun & Lu, Xin, 2025. "Planning of a multi-agent mobile robot-based adaptive charging network for enhancing power system resilience under extreme conditions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 395(C).
    3. Atefeh Alirezazadeh & Vahid Disfani, 2025. "Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Optimization of Mobile Charging Station and Battery Recharging Under Grid Constraints," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(20), pages 1-21, October.
    4. Cui, Jingshi & Jiang, Wenqian & Wu, Chenye, 2025. "Pricing mechanism design for future EV charging station with hybrid fixed and mobile charging modes," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 380(C).
    5. Ding, Yi & Deng, Ming & Ke, Ginger Y. & Shen, Yingjun & Zhang, Lianmin, 2025. "Scheduling intelligent charging robots for electric vehicle: A deep reinforcement learning approach," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    6. Golsefidi, Atefeh Hemmati & Hipolito, F. & Pereira, Francisco Câmara & Samaranayake, Samitha, 2025. "Incremental expansion of large scale fixed and mobile charging infrastructure in stochastic environments: A novel graph-based Benders decomposition approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 380(C).
    7. Morro-Mello, Igoor & Padilha-Feltrin, Antonio & Melo, Joel D. & Heymann, Fabian, 2021. "Spatial connection cost minimization of EV fast charging stations in electric distribution networks using local search and graph theory," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    8. Liu, Changyu & Song, Yadong & Wang, Wei & Shi, Xunpeng, 2023. "The governance of manufacturers’ greenwashing behaviors: A tripartite evolutionary game analysis of electric vehicles," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 333(C).
    9. Chowdhury, Ranjita & Mishra, Puneet & Mathur, Hitesh D., 2025. "Optimal scheduling of mobile and stationary electric vehicle charging stations in a distribution system with stochastic loading," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 326(C).
    10. Benoliel, Peter & Taylor, Margaret & Coburn, Timothy & Desai, Ranjit R. & Schey, Stephen & Gerdes, Mindy & Peng, Peng, 2025. "Soft costs and EVSE – Knowledge gaps as a barrier to successful projects," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 389(C).
    11. Taşcıkaraoğlu, Akın & Beyazıt, Muhammed Ali & Kleissl, Jan & Shi, Yuanyuan, 2025. "Coordinated Management of Mobile Charging Stations and Community Energy Storage for Electric Vehicle Charging," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 393(C).
    12. Makena Coffman & Paul Bernstein & Sherilyn Wee, 2017. "Electric vehicles revisited: a review of factors that affect adoption," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(1), pages 79-93, January.
    13. Wee, Sherilyn & Coffman, Makena & Allen, Scott, 2020. "EV driver characteristics: Evidence from Hawaii," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 33-40.
    14. Wang, Dawei & Guo, Jingwei & Zhang, Yongxiang & Zhong, Qingwei & Xu, Hongke, 2025. "Optimizing expressway battery electric vehicle charging and mobile storage energy truck scheduling: A two-stage approach to improve photovoltaic generation utilization," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).
    15. Hemmati, Reza & Mahdavi, Sajad & Mehrjerdi, Hasan, 2025. "A resilient microgrid formation framework: Mobile battery-swapping station deployment for effective load restoration and voltage collapse prevention," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 318(C).
    16. Muratori, Matteo & Elgqvist, Emma & Cutler, Dylan & Eichman, Joshua & Salisbury, Shawn & Fuller, Zachary & Smart, John, 2019. "Technology solutions to mitigate electricity cost for electric vehicle DC fast charging," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C), pages 415-423.
    17. Sonia Martin & Siobhan Powell & Ram Rajagopal, 2025. "Cascading marginal emissions signals for green charging with growing electric vehicle adoption," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-13, December.
    18. Lin, Haiyang & Bian, Caiyun & Wang, Yu & Li, Hailong & Sun, Qie & Wallin, Fredrik, 2022. "Optimal planning of intra-city public charging stations," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(PC).
    19. Nazari-Heris, Morteza & Loni, Abdolah & Asadi, Somayeh & Mohammadi-ivatloo, Behnam, 2022. "Toward social equity access and mobile charging stations for electric vehicles: A case study in Los Angeles," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 311(C).
    20. Elma, Onur, 2020. "A dynamic charging strategy with hybrid fast charging station for electric vehicles," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:6:p:2767-:d:1616594. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.