Optimal site selection for electric vehicle charging stations: Analysis with hybrid FUCOM and geographic information systems

One of the biggest disadvantages of electric vehicles, which have gained popularity due to reasons such as high energy efficiency and low emissions, is the lack of sufficient charging stations and limited access to suitable charging options. For this reason, in the study, the criteria and their weights that are effective in determining the location of electric vehicle charging stations were determined using FUCOM, which reduces the number of pairwise comparisons, allows less subjective data to be used during the comparison, and provides reliable results because it checks the consistency with the mathematical model. Then, the determined criteria were used in the overlap analysis in GBS to select the most suitable sites that can be used in daily life. The data obtained were compared using the hybrid Best-Worst Method (BWM)-GIS and the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)-GIS. All three hybrid methods determined that the southeast part of the European side and the southwest part of the Anatolian side were the most suitable areas. Therefore, it was seen that the hybrid FUCOM-GIS method should be preferred due to its advantages. In addition, the proposed method was compared with the current EVCS data and the suitability of the method was emphasized.