electric vehicles, charging piles, entropy weight-TOPSIS, set coverage model, Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear engineering, TK1-9971, Transportation engineering, TA1001-1280

Electric vehicles are rapidly popping up in the market as a new alternative to fossil fuels, in order to reduce carbon emissions in urban areas. However, the improper placement of charging piles has impeded the development of electric vehicles. In this paper, 12 indicators from 4 categories, namely economy, environment, cost, and service quality are selected to form an index system for evaluating the location of electric vehicle charging piles. The entropy weight-TOPSIS method is also applied for the same purpose. On the basis of the evaluation, this paper proposes a set coverage model and adopts a greedy heuristic algorithm to find out the optimal location of charging piles. Finally, the paper verifies the reasonability and feasibility of this model by studying the existing location of electric vehicle charging piles in northeast China. The evaluation is based on the Liaoning Province Electric Vehicle Big Data Supervision Platform, which has data that are official and scientifically based. The set coverage model proposed, based on the evaluation, is a new solution to finding out the optimal location of electric vehicle charging piles across China. This study aims to provide a theoretical basis for the development of this new energy industry.