Drivers of electric vehicles, it turns out, act much like drivers of regular vehicles when it’s time for a refill: They’ll go out of their way to save money.
That is the conclusion of a study published Wednesday from the United Kingdom. It also looked at deeper issues that are starting to preoccupy U.S. utilities and electricity regulators as they prepare for growing fleets of electric vehicles.
Power companies could motivate EV drivers to use charging stations when electricity is plentiful by targeting them with specific EV rates, the study said. That, in turn, could help solve another problem: an excess of electricity being created by wind and solar farms at certain times of day.
The study was conducted by the Centre for Net Zero, a London-based nonprofit funded by Octopus Energy, an international renewable-energy provider based in the United Kingdom. The work was led by Robert Metcalfe, a British-educated economics professor at Columbia University.
