Before the climate emergency and the pandemic rocked the automotive industry, electric vehicles (EVs) were on the road to achieving record sales levels. EVs are becoming more and more recognized as a huge benefit to energy evolution, future sustainability and the fight against climate change. They’re also the largest trend impacting home energy usage. The shift towards EVs is starting to create a revolution in how people consume electricity in their homes. For some customers, changing their regular vehicle for an EV would mean that their car becomes the main source of electricity consumption in their home.
With many countries preparing to ban sales of new diesel and petrol car sales by 2035 and other countries and regions including the US, Canada, India, European Union, China, Germany and Norway1 also pitching the idea of banning fossil-fuel based vehicles, the need to understand electricity usage in individual households has never been more critical.
If more people are going to be encouraged to replace their vehicle with an EV, energy companies need to be able to deliver the right insights with regards to energy consumption, costs, as well as advice, to the right customers at the right time.
EVs charge ahead
The landscape and market for EVs is rapidly evolving. Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have invested billions to deliver new electrified models, from R&D to factory redesign. Consumer attitudes have also evolved. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic EVs were moving steadily into the spotlight. For the first time in 2019, the combined annual sales of battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles tipped over 2,000,0002!
Driving adoption of EVs
Switching from gasoline-fuelled vehicles to EVs can reduce local levels of air pollution, particularly in cities with lots of traffic. It’s a swap that many countries are keen to encourage, but if we are going to increase levels of adoption, vehicle owners will need to be nudged in the right direction.
Investments in new vehicle models, infrastructure and charging points, as well as rebate schemes and incentive schemes have all had an encouraging impact on the uptake of EVs. But where financial factors might hamper EV adoption, energy companies can have a significant role to play.
According to a report published by the Behavioral Insights Team3 financial factors have a substantial impact on EV adoption; these include purchase price, running costs and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), the availability of financial incentives, and vehicle depreciation. The report states there are also important cognitive dimensions to cost perception, including our tendency to focus on the high upfront costs of EVs and to discount the benefits of lower running costs.
This is where Advizzo’s behavioral science based customer engagement programs can offer assistance. The Advizzo SaaS platform uses both behavioral and data science to deliver personalized home usage reports, information and advice directly to customers.
Plugging the gap
Educate
Advizzo can help to educate energy customers to drive the uptake of EV options by leveraging a variety of communication channels to deliver information concerning EV options, such as insights about vehicles and charging points, rebate schemes, and lease or purchase options. The Advizzo platform displays the right information and offers it to the right customer at the right time, via a variety of channels.
Visualize
For customers with concerns about TCO and running costs, Advizzo’s customer engagement platform can help them visualize the impact that EV usage would have on their overall energy consumption with intuitive graphs sent directly to their homes or preferred communication device.
source: Advizzo indicative illustration
Tailor
For customers that already have an EV, we can send them tailored tips to optimize the charging of their vehicle to help optimize their energy consumption.
Recommend
In partnership with the Utility, we can promote EV specific energy tariffs. By analyzing customer and smart meter data, we can identify the energy usage patterns of each customer and help energy companies make sure that customers are on the right tariff..
Where would you like to start? We’d love to help you innovate and personalize your customer engagement journeys to EV owners. Get in touch today.
Source ref
1https://news.trust.org/item/20201118095737-8h1uh
2https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/insights/focus/future-of-mobility/electric-vehicle-trends-2030.html
3https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/914111/driving-and-accelerating-the-adoption-of-electric-vehicles-in-the-uk.pdf