Bay Area EV study: 7.5 hours of daily L2 access, but racial gaps persist

A new study from UC Berkeley and MIT researchers introduces the Trajectory-Integrated Public EVCS Accessibility (TI-acs) metric, which uses detailed individual travel data from 6 million Bay Area residents over a week to measure real-world access to public EV charging. Unlike traditional home-based metrics, TI-acs accounts for charging opportunities along a person's entire daily trajectory — at work, during errands, and at other stops. As of June 2024, residents have on average 7.5 hours per day within 1 km (10–12 min walk) of a Level 2 public charger and 5.2 hours for DC fast chargers.

The analysis reveals stark disparities. The Gini coefficient for L2 charger access across census tracts is 0.38, and 0.44 for DCFC — levels comparable to moderate income inequality. These gaps are not only spatial but also racial: even after controlling for home-area infrastructure, differences in daily mobility patterns contribute to unequal access. For example, some communities may pass through well-served commercial corridors or work in neighborhoods with more chargers. The findings highlight the need for infrastructure planning that goes beyond residential coverage to consider how people actually move, especially as EV adoption accelerates.