Transportation Electrification Pilot
Company: Opinion Dynamics
Role: Senior consultant
Methods: online & intercept surveys, in-depth interviews
Skills: survey design, stakeholder interviews, quantitative & qualitative data analysis, synthesis & writing
Tools: Qualtrics, Jibunu, Zoom, Nvivo, SPSS, Excel, PPT
Deliverables: report & slide deck
Impact: program recommendations that helped improve and scale an EV adoption initiative for a local utility; increased awareness & adoption of EVs; cost-savings for EV owners
I wanted to assess the successes and challenges of implementing a transportation electrification program that was designed to support the anticipated acceleration of EV adoption. Through this program, a public utility partnered with local public and private property owners to install EV chargers to help bolster the EV charging network of the region.
I aimed to document the process of siting, designing, and installing the charging infrastructure to make recommendations for future program expansion. I also surveyed local residents and users of the chargers to understand how the infrastructure affects driver purchasing behavior and EV sales. My research activities included an online EV owner survey, an in-person intercept survey, and in-depth interviews with program staff and partners.
Overview
Objective
Document successes and challenges implementing the pilot and make recommendations for future program expansion and implementation
Quantify the impacts of the pilot on EV awareness, sales, use and barriers
Understand how customers use the charging stations under a range of conditions and how the chargers could affect EV sales and driver behavior
Hypothesis
The new EV charging infrastructure will provide easy, visible, and low-cost access to EV charging, which could subsequently influence local EV adoption. After more charging sites are installed, the program will see a streamlined process for charging infrastructure deployment.
Approach
I administered a suite of data collection activities to address the research questions.
Web surveys with local residents, including those who drive EVs and those who do not. Survey questions pertained to awareness and utilization of local EV charging sites and likelihood to purchase an EV in the future, among other demographic topics.
In-person intercept surveys with attendees of an EV charging site opening. I attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony of a new EV charging site, where attendees could test drive EVs. I surveyed the attendees to explore their motivations of attending the event, source of awareness, and interest in purchasing an EV after attending the event.
In-depth 1:1 interviews with program staff, site hosts, and charging equipment vendors. To collect information on the full process of designing and installing an EV charging site for the pilot program, I conducted roughly 10 interviews with program managers, hosts (public and private) of the site location, and equipment vendors.
Findings
I found that deploying new EV charging infrastructure has a variety of impacts on local drivers:
Awareness of the charging sites among drivers increased considerably in 2019, as compared to 2018. Users that use the sites the most are TNC drivers (Lyft and Uber).
EV charger utilization rates differ among sites in the region, dependent on location and proximity to central locations, such as the airport. As more sites come online over time and awareness increases, charger utilization also increases.
Site openings were successful in 2019, with marketing and outreach bringing impressive attendance numbers. The site opening events appeared to have increased attendees’ likelihood of purchasing or leasing an EV in the next five years, especially among TNC drivers.
Documentation of the process and design uncovered challenges and successes in deploying new charging infrastructure:
New-to-market technology such as EV chargers naturally come with software and hardware issues, warranting a structured and streamlined protocol for operating, maintaining, and serving the charging equipment. Communicative and proactive customer service is also important for ensuring charger downtime does not negatively impact users.
The siting and design of each charging site is unique and has its own set of challenges; this requires an iterative and collaborative design process between the program administrator, contractors, and site hosts.
Partnering with local municipal governments is critical for planning, developing, and marketing successful EV charging facilities. Municipalities can be ideal partners for EV charging projects as they often share the same climate change goals and ideals; they can also leverage relationships with local organizations for additional outreach resources.
Installing charging equipment requires a permitting process, which was found to be straightforward and seamless due to the collaboration between the utility and municipal planning departments.
Impact
Interview data revealed that the program administrator struggled with the partnership with the charging hardware vendor; the technology has proven to be somewhat faulty. I recommended that the administrator consider searching for a new hardware vendor to decrease charger downtime and improve the overall operation of the charging sites.
COVID negatively impacted the utilization of the chargers in 2020, as well as potential awareness of the sites. I recommended the pilot review and adjust its charger utilization goals for 2021 and beyond due to COVID impacts.
To mitigate charger downtime and improve the experience of the user, I recommended the program prioritize the operation and maintenance of the charging sites. More resources, such as additional staff, could help the current maintenance team better manage the sites.