Understanding the charging behavior of electric vehicle (EV) is crucial for both supply planning and demand management of EV charging. The present work investigated the influencing factors of private EV owners’ charging behavior based on Stated Preference (SP) survey data. Specifically, charging behavior preference of private EV owners were collected through SP survey, considering cognitive ability, risk attitude, inertia, environmental and emotional factors. Then a structural equation model (SEM) was established to explore the relationships between various factors and EV charging behavior. The results revealed that inertia is influenced by the other four factors, charging risk attitude is affected by cognitive ability and emotional factors, charging emotion is influenced by cognitive ability and environmental factors, and cognitive ability is positively correlated with environmental factors. These conclusions provide deeper understanding about private EV owners' charging behavior and important insights for better charging behavior management.