Show me the Money! Incentives and Nudges to Shift Electric Vehicle Charge Timing

The authors use a field experiment to measure the effectiveness of financial incentives and moral suasion “nudges” to shift the timing of electric vehicle (EV) charging. The authors find EV owners respond strongly to financial incentives, while nudges have no statistically discernible effect. When financial incentives are removed, charge timing reverts to pre-intervention behavior, showing no evidence of habit formation and reinforcing the finding that “money matters”. The charge price responsiveness estimate is an order of magnitude larger than typical household electricity consumption elasticities. This result highlights the greater flexibility of EV charging over other forms of residential electricity demand.

• Record URL:
  http://doi.org/10.3386/w31630
• Record URL:
  https://www.nber.org/papers/w31630
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2023 by Megan R. Bailey, David P. Brown, Blake C. Shaffer, and Frank A. Wolak. All rights reserved.
• Authors:
  • Bailey, Megan R
  • Brown, David P
  • Shaffer, Blake C
  • Wolak, Frank A
• Publication Date: 2023-8

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 36p
• Serial:
  • NBER Working Papers
  • Issue Number: 31630
  • Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Behavior; Electric vehicle charging; Energy consumption; Incentives; Periods of the day
• Subject Areas: Energy; Finance; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01892542
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 11 2023 11:39AM