In this module we have looked at some of the social aspects that play an important role in policy making for electric vehicles. In the first lecture by prof. Margot Weijnen we looked at some of the social aspects regarding the purchase decision of electric vehicles. We found out that the major reasons to purchase a car is to fulfil the travel needs of the household. We explored how for example electric car sharing could fulfil these needs. Looking at the vehicle choice we saw that the costs play a major factor; an intervention option for policy makers.

In the second lecture we looked at the distributional effects of financial stimulation schemes for EVs, and the issue of transaction costs. We looked at how incentives should be designed in time and value to ensure minimal distributional effects in which tax payers money flows to early adopters which are often already in high income groups. Secondly we explored how to minimize transaction costs in electric vehicle charging and how such costs are experienced by the consumer.

In the third lecture we took a different approach and learned about cyber security risks that connected electric vehicles bring. We learned that connecting electric vehicles to the electricity grid increases the number of privacy sensitive transactions which require safe, but open protocols. We explored the trade-offs that consumers have to make between providing this data and potential gains and how policy makers should boundaries in which aggregators have to operate.

In the finale lecture Remco Verzijlbergh explored the potential benefits of electric vehicles connected to the electricity grid. He showed that demand response can alleviate stress on the electricity grid but can also help make money by charging at cheaper times. This not only helps to safe electric vehicle drivers money, but makes electricity cheaper for everyone!

Further reading

• • • • Deloitte (2014) Driving through the consumer’s mind: Steps in the buying process. Retrieved from: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/in/Documents/manufacturing/in-mfg-dtcm-steps-in-the-buying-process-noexp.pdf.
      • IRyan C Bosworth, Grant Patty and Matthew Crabtree (2017) The current state of electric vehicle subsidies: Economic, environmental, and distributional impacts. Strata research. Retrieved from: https://strata.org/pdf/2017/ev-full.pdf.
      • Fabian van den Broek, Erik Poll and Barbara Vieira, Securing the information infrastructure for EV charging. Retrieved from: http://www.cs.ru.nl/~F.vandenBroek/pub/EVcharging.pdf.
      • European Network for Cyber Security, EV Charging Systems Security Requirements. Retrieved from: https://www.elaad.nl/projects/cybersecurity/.
      • Remco A. Verzijlbergh, Marinus O. W. Grond, Zofia Lukszo, Johannes G. Slootweg, Marija D. Ilic (2012) Network Impacts and Cost Savings of Controlled EV Charging, IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, Volume 3 , Issue 3. DOI: 10.1109/TSG.2012.2190307.