A Blockchain-Based Electric Vehicle Charging Cooperation Model

Abstract

Due to the rising number of Electric Vehicles (EV), the subsequent increase in demand for charging, as well as the long charging time, will make it difficult for drivers to charge their vehicles. Current charging service platforms inform their customers of the charging station information for the network to which they belong. However, they do not ensure the reliability and credibility of information and do not share the charging information of other charging stations. To address this issue, a model in which CSs collaborate for information sharing and charging must be developed. In this paper, we propose a blockchain-based integrated charging platform for charging cooperation. Verifier groups for each CS verify the reliability of shared information. We applied the concept of Mobile Charging Stations (MCSs) to help busy CSs, reducing EV charging latency. We also designed a contribution-based incentive distribution process to elicit active CSs' cooperation. We performed a charging scenario simulation and blockchain implementation to demonstrate the proposed model's efficacy. The simulation results showed that the proposed charging scenario with MCS application showed a 46.9 % reduction in waiting time. Also, when the number of verifier members equals the global average of EVs per charging spot, the verification time is approximately 547 ms, demonstrating that the proposed model is effective.