Scholarly record
THE COST OF ACCESS: ECONOMIC INEQUALITY IN ON-STREET ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING IN RIGA AND LONDON
Abstract
Access to affordable and reliable charging is emerging as a central equity challenge in the transition to electric mobility. While most EV charging in Europe occurs at home, this option is unavailable to many urban residents without private parking, who must depend on more expensive public infrastructure. This study compares everyday EV charging costs in London (United Kingdom) and Riga (Latvia), examining four representative EV user clusters with distinct daily mobility patterns. Using harmonised energy-demand profiles and real-world tariff structures, we quantify daily and annual charging costs across home, on-street AC, and public DC charging modes. The results show a consistent and substantial cost penalty for users lacking home charging. In London, on-street AC charging costs are typically 1.3-2.1 times higher than standard home tariffs and up to six times higher than EV-specific time-of-use tariffs. In Riga, public DC charging is 1.4-2.0 times more expensive than fixed-rate home electricity and almost twice as expensive as dynamic Nord Pool-indexed tariffs. These patterns hold across all behavioural clusters, demonstrating that the disadvantage is structural rather than user-specific. Because access to private charging strongly correlates with income and housing type, the resulting cost disparities risk reinforcing existing socio-economic inequalities. Ensuring a fair transition to electric mobility, therefore, requires public-charging models that reduce, rather than amplify, the financial burden on households without off-street parking.
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