Predictability of the electric vehicle plug-in duration to a charging station as a marketing prioritisation score to increase participation of drivers in smart charging

Smart charging increases renewable energy utilization and decreases the burden on the electrical grid. However, its acceptance and popularity among electric vehicle (EV) drivers reaches still low numbers. Therefore, we explore what prioritization of drivers would be the best for a targeted marketing campaign to primarily aim at the drivers most beneficial for the smart charging system. As a score, we use several simple measures of plug-in duration prediction error, as we assume that EV drivers’ suitability for smart charging varies based on their predictability of charging behaviour. To find the best among these metrics we use computer simulations, where we vary the participation levels of the drivers in smart charging. The median relative error provides the most significant results in terms of the energy charged during the off-peak price period.