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Jennifer Szaro
Jennifer Szaro
Expert Member
·Posted in Home
Fri, Aug 18

The Electric Vehicle Driver Experience (EVDX): Empowering the EV Transition

Overview

The world is rapidly transitioning towards cleaner and more sustainable modes of transportation, with electric vehicles (EVs) emerging as a viable solution to combat climate change and reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. However, the widespread adoption of EVs faces numerous challenges, ranging from a lack of awareness and misconceptions to inadequate charging infrastructure and complicated purchase processes. To address these hurdles and make the transition to electric transportation smoother for all communities, the Association of Energy Services Professionals (AESP) recently founded the Electric Vehicle Driver Experience Initiative (EVDX).

The Electric Vehicle Driver Experience Initiative (EVDX) is a collaborative effort that brings together utilities, governments, energy professionals, and non-profit organizations. The primary goal of EVDX is to provide the AESP community with fast access to tools and resources that will assist in the creation of programs and campaigns that facilitate the shift from gas-powered vehicles to clean, electric transportation. By addressing key barriers and providing valuable resources, EVDX aims to empower our stakeholders to work more effectively with consumers and businesses to ensure a positive user experience throughout their EV journey.

The Key Goals of EVDX

The primary purpose of the EVDX initiative is to use a collaborative stakeholder approach to remove barriers to EV adoption.  Specifically, the initiative should assist the energy services industry by:

  • Creating a Professional Home: EVDX seeks to be a centralized resource and professional home to energy professionals working to overcome current driver pain points hindering EV adoption. This includes addressing issues related to utility pricing, managed charging programs, and other pertinent topics.

  • Working with All Communities: EVDX is committed to working with diverse communities, customer classes, service territories, and jurisdictions to develop tailored programs that ease the transition to electric transportation.

  • Creating a Central Resource for Market Intelligence: By compiling market intelligence, driver experience research, and charging behavior data, EVDX aims to develop actionable best practices for communities looking to promote EV adoption.

  • Ensuring a Comprehensive Approach: EVDX focuses on addressing all aspects of the consumer and business fleet journey related to EVs. This includes assessing costs, vehicle selection, charging options (home, work, and on-the-go), and understanding tax credits and rebates.

  • Advocating for Effective EV User Programs: EVDX provides vetted collective insights resulting from group problem-solving regarding best practices in designing and implementing EV customer programs for fleets, small businesses, and individuals.  These proposed solution sets can be applied when important decisions are being made regarding government or utility programs. It also offers helpful perspectives on how education and outreach funding could be most effectively deployed to ensure maximum impact on improving the EV driver experience and reducing potential barriers to EV adoption.

Understanding the EV Customer Journey

To help accomplish their goals, EVDX has developed an EV customer journey based on their knowledge and experience of the current landscape. For this journey, EVDX has identified some overarching barriers and solutions that they believe are driving forces to enhance EV adoption now and in the future.

1. Awareness & Knowledge

  • Barriers: Lack of exposure to EVs, misconceptions about how they work and charging, and concerns about costs.

  • Solutions: Comprehensive educational material, best practices education campaigns, and standardized, tested messaging to dispel myths and inform the public.

2. Shopping Experience

  • Barriers: Confusion about different types of EVs, doubts about how EVs fit into one's lifestyle, lack of dealer knowledge, and uncertainty about range and usage.

  • Solutions: Online shopping assistants to guide customers, matching driving needs with the right vehicle, and helping customers understand their charging equipment needs and battery sizing.

3. Purchase Tax Credits & Rebates

  • Barriers: Lack of awareness, difficulty interpreting tax credits, complicated application processes, and challenges for low-income individuals to qualify.

  • Solutions: Providing clarity on tax credits, assisting in finding available rebates, and identifying low-income assistance programs.

4. Charging Experience

  • Barriers: Uncertainty about how to charge at home and away, issues with broken public charging stations, lack of understanding about charging levels, and unawareness of utility pricing programs.

  • Solutions: Clear explanations about charging, detailing real-life charging scenarios, and matching drivers with utility rate, rebate, and charging programs.

5. Driving Experience

  • Barriers: Concerns about higher electricity bills, uncertainty about real range in different conditions, confusion about charging networks, and apprehensions about road trips with EVs.

  • Solutions: Guidance on joining utility-managed charging programs, educating about battery health, explaining range variations in different conditions, and offering methods to avoid range anxiety.

EVDX's customer journey places emphasis on empowering customers with the knowledge and support needed to seamlessly integrate into the EV community at every step of the way.

The EVDX Solutions Lab

As a first step, in June of this year, AESP convened roughly 100 energy industry experts at its first regional EVDX Solutions Lab at the Industry Innovation Center (Tech Town) at Wayne State University in Detroit. Unique in its approach, the event concentrated on the EV journey from the perspective of eight representative consumer and business personas. Attendees, including utility, government, non-profit, and for-profit executives, worked together to explore pain points for each of these personas and then collaborated on programmatic solutions to overcome those challenges in the EV adoption journey.

Participants had the opportunity to be part of a collaborative group driving change in the EV industry by joining the EVDX Solutions Lab and helping put people at the center of the EV revolution. This event was held over two days and included presentations from subject matter experts on several EV topics, including: EV Adoption, Tipping Point, and Buyers of Tomorrow; Education, Communications, and Marketing: Reaching People with the Right Message at the Right Place; Best Practices in Customer EV Rebate, Rate Design, and Managed Charging Programs; and Equity Solutions with Electric Transportation (Keys to Success in Programs).

Pictured: EVDX solutions lab session (part 1) – Defining Consumer & Business Core Needs

Along with the various presentations and discussions held during this event, the core activity was the actual EVDX Solution Lab sessions. During these dynamic sessions, the participants were divided into small teams and assigned the task of identifying key pain points along one of the eight persona’s EV adoption journey and then designing new and improved program strategies to address those pain points. The persona groups represented distinct sub-markets, including rural, semi-retired couples in single-family homes; multi-family suburban couples with middle incomes; suburban single-family households with five members and four drivers; active, young, and single residents of urban multi-family settings; income-qualified urban families of four living in multi-family units; city fleet directors; small business fleet owners; and mid-sized big box retailers.

 

Eight Representative EV User Personas

By delving into the unique needs of each customer segment, the teams aimed to develop targeted solutions to facilitate a smoother EV transition process. The focus was on creating customer-centric approaches that could overcome real everyday challenges faced by fleet owners and EV drivers, such as access to accurate information about electric vehicles and challenges with obtaining cost-effective and reliable access to EV charging infrastructure.

Throughout the lab, the participants engaged in insightful discussions and brainstorming sessions, culminating in the formulation of comprehensive program strategies. These strategies were tailor-made to suit the requirements of each customer group and pave the way for a more sustainable and inclusive future in the EV industry. A full summary of the customer journey maps, barriers, and solutions will be coming soon from EVDX.

  

Image: A City Fleet Director's EV Journey

    

Image: A proposed solution for EV Drivers

      

Image: Final Output of an EVDX Solution Lab Brainstorming Session

Next Steps

The Electric Vehicle Driver Experience Initiative (EVDX) strives to be a transformative force propelling the transition to cleaner and sustainable transportation. EVDX will continue to unite utilities, governments, energy professionals, and non-profit organizations to tackle barriers hindering the widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). By offering comprehensive education, tailored solutions, and unwavering advocacy, EVDX empowers consumers and businesses throughout their EV journey. The recent EVDX Solutions Lab event exemplifies our commitment to customer-centric approaches, where industry leaders collaborated to design targeted strategies for diverse customer groups, with the goal of identifying effective solutions that can accelerate EV adoption and enhance infrastructure. And we’re just getting started! With a shared vision of a more sustainable future, EVDX will continue to be a driving force behind the revolution, looking to foster a thriving EV community for generations to come. Keep a look out for the next regional EVDX event happening soon!

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