Modeling Best Locations for Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

Electric vehicles, previously only spectacles of auto shows, science fiction, and a failed launch attempt in the late 1990s, are now becoming a consumer reality; there are an estimated 56,000 electric cars (mostly retrofitted) currently in use in the United States. The Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt recently became the first electric cars released by major automotive companies, and projections show that by 2015, a million electric vehicles will be on U.S. streets.

But while drivers of gas-powered vehicles can easily stop at a station to fill up, drivers of electric vehicles currently have no such option. That, combined with electric vehicles' limited battery capacity (the Nissan Leaf has a range of 100 miles, in the best conditions), leads to "range anxiety" - the fear that the car will run out of juice before getting to a battery charger.