Analysis of factors affecting economic operation of electric vehicle charging station based on DEMATEL-ISM

Electric vehicles have gained rapid development in recent years, and many shaped electric vehicle charging stations (EVCS) have been built in China. However, with the increase of the number and scale of EVCS, the economic problems of EVCS operation are becoming more and more prominent, and there are many problems in their operation, all of which affect the economic and social benefits of EVCS. In order to improve the economic operation of EVCS, this paper adopts Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory-Interpretative Structural Modeling (DEMATEL-ISM) method to identify and analyse its influencing factors. According to the opinions of experts and EVCS enterprises, the influencing factors system of economic operation of EVCS is constructed by Delphi method, including four aspects of planning, external environment, management and technology. Based on the analysis results of multilevel hierarchical structure model, the influencing factors of EVCS economic operation can be divided into four levels. Among them, the top-level factors include charging price, gasoline price, electric vehicle battery, reliability of power supply, and spare parts management. The factors in the second layer include charging monitoring system and safety management. The third level factors include charging station address, charging station scale, regional power grid situation, government policy, technical supervision management, operation data analysis and management, personal training management. The third level elements directly affect the second level factors and have an impact on the first level factors through the second level factors. Furthermore, it is also found that the number of electric vehicles is the deepest factor and the most basic segment which affects the economic operation of EVCS and the other factors. This method is feasible and can be utilized to quantitatively analyse the influencing factors of economic operation of EVCS.