Empirical Study of Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Usage in Ireland

This paper presents a study of charging station usage in Ireland between 2016 and 2018. Using data collected by crawling the webpage of the Irish Board of Electricity, it can be shown that clear trends exist with regards to charging station usage. We show that peak-hours have a 20% higher usage probability than off-peak hours with the overall usage likelihood being quite low. Similarly, station usage on Sunday as off-peak day is several percent lower than on other days of the week. Looking at area-properties, we show a positive correlation between station usage and population density, electric vehicle density, and traffic density. For charging power an inverse relationship can be shown as slower chargers require longer parking-times. This offers potential for innovative station usage during off-peak hours and at sites without strong frequentation.