For those considering buying an electric vehicle, or EV, range anxiety — the fear of not having enough battery charge to arrive at a destination or charging station — is a real concern. Michigan State University researchers have contributed to a recent report from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, or MEDC, and its Office of Future Mobility and Electrification that reveals how many EV charging stations the state needs and where they should be located to meet the current and future demands for EV in the state.

Mehrnaz Ghamami and Ali Zockaie, associate professors in MSU’s College of Engineering, have been studying Michiganders’ travel patterns across the state using information provided by the Michigan Department of Transportation’s road network. They used the travel demand matrix provided by MDOT in combination with data from continuous traffic counting stations (24/7 vehicle counts) to simulate travel patterns across Michigan.

Ghamami and her team talked with EV users, car companies and utility companies to create realistic scenarios to make sure their assumptions were realistic when they created their models. For example, when do EV users stop to charge their vehicles? How often do they use their EVs for long-distance trips? What are the main barriers in EV trips? This led to the team identifying optimal locations throughout the state that minimize investment costs while providing an acceptable level of service to users.

“We are considering things like making sure that our users won’t have to go out of their way to find a charging station or face significant delays while waiting for an available charger,” said Ghamami. “It’s not just the investment that we are considering, but also the EV users; we want to make sure every single EV trip is feasible.”