While the transportation sector is responsible for a growing share of greenhouse gas emissions, electric vehicles (EVs) offer solutions for greener mobility. The proportion of electric vehicles in transportation fleets is increasing, but wider adoption will not be possible without an appropriate charging infrastructure. The deployment of such infrastructure should follow a strategy that considers both the environment in which it is deployed and the behavior patterns of electric vehicle users. If these aspects are not taken into consideration, there is a risk of failing to meet users’ needs and generating additional costs. Here we review the literature on location problems for electric vehicle charging stations. We aim to draw up a comparative overview of approaches that have been used up to 2020 for optimizing the locations of charging infrastructure. We first briefly review the issues raised by the deployment of charging infrastructure, namely technical, economic and user acceptance concerns. We then look at the goals of the infrastructure location models in the literature. Schematically, those goals fall into two categories: minimizing the cost of charging infrastructure for a given level of service, or maximizing the service provided for a given cost. Finally, we focus on the approaches used to achieve these goals. Three categories of approaches are identified: node, path, and tour- or activity-based approaches. We then discuss these approaches in relation to technical, economic and user acceptance factors in order to provide a comprehensive analysis for stakeholders involved in EV charging infrastructure planning. Directions are given for future research to develop models that better reflect the real-world picture. •Large-scale diffusion of electric vehicles requires a well-adapted charging infrastructure.•Deploying charging infrastructure addresses technical, economic and user related issues.•Node, path and tour based approaches are used to deploy charging infrastructure.•Charging infrastructure deployment must be done with a coherent agenda.