Abstract
This thesis study whether public fast charging infrastructure drives battery electric vehicle adoption in Norway. The analysis is based on annual information on public fast charging stations and the battery electric vehicle share at municipal level. The data set contains observations from all 356 Norwegian municipalities between 2009 and 2021. The change in electric vehicle share following installation of fast charging infrastructure is analysed using a difference-in-difference methodology, and presented as event studies. The treatment in the difference-in-difference model is defined as the year the municipality first gains access to a public fast charger. The analysis indicates that fast charging infrastructure drives electric vehicle adoption in municipalities that gain access to a public fast charger prior to 2015. On average, the share of electric vehicles has increased by 2.4 percentage points over nine years. These results are robust to anticipatory effects, and show little evidence of reverse effects. The same analysis is preformed for several sub-samples of the data set, but non of these produce robust results. The sub-samples include; all municipalities that receive treatment, excluding urban areas, and municipalities treated in 2015 or later. Results from the analysis might indicate that fast chargers had a bigger impact earlier in the adoption process. Overall, this study provides insights into the relationship between charging infrastructure and electric vehicle adoption.