Location Selection of Charging Stations for Electric Taxis: A Bangkok Case

Abstract

The transition from ICE to BEV taxis is one of the most important methods for reducing fossil fuel consumption and air pollution in cities such as Bangkok. To support this transition, an adequate number of charging stations to cover each area of charging demand must be established. This paper presents a data-driven process for determining suitable charging locations for BEV taxis based on their characteristic driving patterns. The location selection process employs GPS trajectory data collected from taxis and the locations of candidate sites. Suitable locations are determined based on estimated travel times and charging demands. A queueing model is used to simulate charging activities and identify an appropriate number of chargers at each station. The location selection results are validated using data from existing charging services. The validation results show that the proposed process can recommend better locations for charging stations than current practices. By using the traveling time data that take the current traffic condition into account, e.g., via Google Maps API, we can minimize the overall travel time to charging stations of the taxi fleet better than using the distance data. This process can also be applied to other cities.