Charging Electric Vehicles Using Opportunistic Stopovers

The diffusion of electric vehicles asks for efficient energy replenishment, which requires geographical and temporal coordination of shared charging resources. We introduce a novel charging methodology that exploits users’ opportunistic mobility. This paper focuses on vehicle stopovers detecting potential charg- ing opportunities. Our mobility-assisted methodology protects users privacy and permits a hybrid centralized/distributed ap- proach avoiding clashes with other potential users. A preliminary analysis on our charging system, obtained with mobility data from the field, shows that among the available charging stations, some are more relevant and have a key role in serving electric vehicle recharge. This can be useful for further investigation on designing charging networks and aggregating electric vehicles towards charging stations.