Application of the entropy-DEMATEL-VIKOR multicriteria decision-making method in public charging infrastructure

As an energy-saving and environmentally friendly means of transportation, electric vehicles have been advocated and promoted by various countries, resulting in an increase in the number of electric vehicles. The improvement of public charging infrastructure not only drives the development of the electric vehicle industry but also solves the problems of user difficulty in charging and the low utilization rate of charging piles. From the perspective of electric vehicle (EV) user experience, this research establishes a framework of indicators, including the reputation level, service quality, convenience, economy and safety. Second, the objective entropy weight method and the subjective decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method are combined to weight the indicators. Among the indicators, the comprehensive weights of market share (C2), app operation interface (C3), and charging mode (C5) are 0.107, 0.088, and 0.090, respectively, ranking in the top three. These three indicators should be given more attention by public charging infrastructure operators. Finally, three alternative public charging infrastructures are sorted by using the VlseKriterijuska Optimizacija I Komoromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method. Since the positive ideal solution Si of h1 (state grid) is 0.084, the negative ideal solution Ri is 0.248, and the comprehensive index Qi is 0.000. All ranking first, this finding indicates that the public charging infrastructure of this operator has strong competitiveness in the market. In addition, the results are consistent with actual news reports, which also proves the effectiveness of the index system and model.