Urban EV Charging Station Location Optimisation Platform Using Open Data

Objective: To develop a digital platform that recommends optimal locations for new electric vehicle charging stations in a city, aiding urban local bodies and power utilities.

India's rapid urbanisation and electric vehicle (EV) adoption are challenged by the insufficient and uneven distribution of public EV charging stations, resulting in range anxiety for users and underutilised infrastructure for power utilities. Urban local bodies and power distribution companies need data-driven tools to ensure new charging stations are sited where they deliver maximum accessibility, grid efficiency, and public benefit, supporting SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and national energy ministries’ mandates.

This project proposes a digital decision-support tool that analyses city-level open geospatial, mobility, and power-grid datasets to recommend high-impact locations for public EV charging stations. The approach combines spatial analytics, multi-criteria optimisation, and user-friendly mapping interfaces, factoring in vehicle density, travel corridors, existing infrastructure, grid capacity, and land use constraints to prioritise sites.

Deliverables include: a web-based interactive platform, data pipelines for ingestion and mapping of open datasets (e.g., OpenStreetMap, urban mobility data, utility substations), a location optimisation algorithm, and a reporting dashboard for urban planners. The working prototype will demonstrate automated recommendations for a selected Indian city using real-world open data.

Impact will be measured by the increase in population and key transit hubs within 1 km of a recommended site versus existing coverage, and the estimated reduction in detour distances for EV users. The solution is scalable to any Indian city with available data and can be integrated with municipal or state e-mobility planning processes.