Spatial equity analysis of urban public services for electric vehicle charging—Implications of Chinese cities

• An accessibility measurement model is developed for electric vehicle public charging facilities. • A procedure of spatial equity evaluation is further devised. • The methodology is performed for ten representative Chinese cities to demonstrate its applicability and examine their spatial equity in charging infrastructure. • Over half of the cities exhibit spatial inequity in access to charging infrastructure. • Targeted polities are required to reduce regional disparities in recharging service provision. The widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is crucial for urban sustainability, which can promote the low carbon transition of urban mobility systems and increase energy independence. However, inadequate access to charging infrastructure has posed significant challenges on penetration to the mass market, which requires an equitable distribution of public charging facilities among residents. Current planning and deployment of public charging facilities only take efficiency into account, with limited attention to the spatial equity in distribution. Hence, this study proposes a spatial statistical approach to evaluate whether electric vehicle charging services (EVCS) are equitably distributed. An innovative accessibility measurement model is first developed for EVCS, considering competition over changing demand and different charging capacities. On this basis, a spatial autocorrelation analysis procedure is further designed to investigate spatial patterns of residential accessibility and detect regional disparities. The proposed methodology is tested with the top ten cities in China by their capacity of EVCS, where most cities exhibit significant inequitable distribution but with different regional characteristics. It is demonstrated that the methodology can improve the accuracy of measurement while remaining easy to implement. Therefore, it can serve as a policy tool for EVCS planning to maximize its capability to facilitate EV uptake.