Full Title: Show Me the Money! Incentives and Nudges to Shift Electric Vehicle Charge Timing
Author(s): Megan R. Bailey, David P. Brown, Blake C. Shaffer, and Frank A. Wolak
Publisher(s): National Bureau of Economic Research
Publication Date: August 22, 2023
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Description (excerpt):
This working paper uses a field experiment to measure the effectiveness of financial incentives and moral suasion “nudges” to shift the timing of electric vehicle (EV) charging. They 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 our finding that “money matters”. Their 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.