Understanding electric vehicle charging behavior: A multidisciplinary review and conceptual framework
Farnoosh Roozkhosh, X. Angela Yao
Abstract
• Conduct a comprehensive review of electric vehicle (EV) charging behavior. • Develop a multidisciplinary taxonomy to analyze EV charging behavior. • Propose a conceptual framework for defining and understanding EV charging behavior. • Map and align common data types and research methods across multiple dimensions. • Identify key research gaps and opportunities for studying EV charging behavior. EV charging behavior refers to the observable patterns and underlying decision processes through which drivers decide when, where, how often, and how much to charge, and which charging technologies to use. Despite rapid growth in empirical research, the term is operationalized inconsistently across disciplines (e.g., as load profiles, session dynamics, location choice, or socio-demographic differences), making evidence difficult to compare and limiting its transferability to infrastructure planning, grid management, and equity assessment. In this review, we synthesize the interdisciplinary literature on EV users’ charging behavior and propose a unified, behavior-centered framework that organizes studies into four complementary lenses with explicit units of analysis and boundaries: (1) spatiotemporal-based (when and where charging occurs), (2) EV-based (vehicle state and technical constraints), (3) user-based (heterogeneity in users and charging access), and (4) session-based (within-event dynamics). For each lens, we summarize common data types, methods, and application domains, highlight overlaps, and identify opportunities for integration across datasets and modeling traditions.