Title: Using the health benefits of electric vehicles to justify charging infrastructure incentives

Authors: Mitchell L. House; David J. Wright

Addresses: Institute of the Environment, University of Ottawa, 1 Stewart Street, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada ' Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa, 55 Laurier Ave. E, Ottawa, K1N 6N5, Canada

Abstract: Health benefits from switching from internal combustion vehicles (ICVs) to electric vehicles (EVs) include reduction of healthcare costs from treating cardiopulmonary illness, less sick leave and quality and length of life improvements. This paper compares the financial value of those benefits with the cost of building an EV charging infrastructure, using empirical data to investigate whether there is a net benefit. In most scenarios of balanced growth, when the number of charging stations increases with the number of EVs the net benefit is positive. Rapid build-out of charging stations over 2-4 years associated with government targets for EVs in 2020 and in 2025 have a net cost during the build-out period with net benefits from 2021 onwards. Since health benefits accrue to governments, businesses and individuals, these results justify the use of government incentives for charging station deployment and this paper quantifies the impact of different levels of incentive.

Keywords: electric vehicles; charging infrastructure; health benefits; costs; government policy; risk analysis.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEHV.2019.099983

International Journal of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles, 2019 Vol.11 No.2, pp.85 - 105

Received: 17 Jul 2018
Accepted: 06 Aug 2018

Published online: 03 Jun 2019 *

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