Local Charger Availability and Electric Vehicle Adoption: Evidence from Norway

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of local public charging infrastructure on electric vehicle (EV) adoption using microdata from Norway between 2010 and 2023. We use 1.59 million new car registrations, geocoded to buyers’ residences and matched to nearby charging stations, along with neighbourhood controls and fixed effects, to estimate the causal impact of local charger availability. Our preferred estimates show that adding 100 normal chargers within 5 km of a new car buyers residence increases the probability of EV adoption by 0.6 percentage points, while 100 fast chargers raise it by 3 percentage points