Designing the user experience for new modes of electric vehicle charging: A shared vision, potential user issues and user attitudes

ELECTRIC VEHICLE (EV) uptake has been increasing greatly and steadily over recent years. Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), is an emerging energy system, with the potential to reduce peak loads and support the balance of the electricity grid. To benefit the 34% of the UK population without off-street parking, street furniture charging solutions have been developed. This requires the design of new services and digital interactions for buying, and selling back, electricity to the grid, leading to new customer experiences. The ultimate goal of this research is to understand and design these new user experiences. The overall system is complex, involving energy flows, financial flows, new technology, consumer interaction, and consumer acceptance. To explore the potential issues of a V2G-supported EV charging system and examine consumers’ attitudes towards such system, a mixed-methods approach was employed. Part 1 of this paper specifically explores the creation of a holistic vision of consumers, EVs, street furniture charging solutions, and V2G. A workshop was organised with 22 participants from across the different specialisms within the project team. Consumer motivations, enablers, and barriers were explored. Part 2 of this paper examines consumer attitudes and intention-to-buy based on a scenario of V2G system, which was created with the foundation of the outcome from Part 1. Consumers showed positive views towards EV adoption, while the intention-to-buy V2G-supported EV charging system varied. Consumers tended to be cautious about making a full commitment to V2G packages. This paper also discusses the design implications for future research and practitioners.