The shifts towards more use of electric vehicles and more use of renewable energy sources create the need for Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology. To penetrate the market, the development of V2G business models is critical. However, there are no sustainable V2G business models determined yet. Therefore, this research focused on what the key components are for such business models focusing on the Netherlands. By applying a qualitative approach, this study analyzed the actor's environment, technological developments, and three cases. After that, semi-structured interviews were conducted interviewing eleven experts with regards to the development of sustainable V2G business models. The results showed that there are three themes (business environment, business model, sustainability), twenty-six categories, and 229 components. This research provided an overview of the key components in a business model framework categorized into three use cases: Public V2G charging, V2G for homeowners (Vehicle-to-Home), and V2G for office/building owners (Vehicle-to-Building). The results showed that the business environment is vital and that the Dutch market is at the moment not ready for V2G to be commercial because of institutional, technical, and standardization issues. However, there is also potential due to the increasing trend of EVs, increasing grid congestion, decreasing costs of V2G charging infrastructure, and other trends. ... Read more

The objective of this study was identifying factors that contribute to Dutch electric vehicle (EV) drivers’ acceptance of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) at long-term parking lots. The results of this study aim to help V2G system designers to improve the quality of bi-directional V2G charging services for EV users and to foster V2G acceptance. The following problem statement was formulated: “To what extent do Dutch EV drivers accept V2G at long-term parking?” Based on a literature review and 20 exploratory semi-structured interviews with Dutch EV users, the conceptual model of the Theory of Planned Behaviour was contextualized for V2G acceptance by extending it. The resulting model includes V2G acceptance as a core concept and following influencing main factors or categories: perceived benefits, perceived barriers, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, EV driver’s profile characteristics, trust and intention to accept. Based on the interviews, the main conclusion was that EV users predominantly showed high acceptance of V2G at long-term parking, but that it was dependent on a relatively high number of different underlying factors or sub-factors (85) and that their individual attitudes differed with regards to several topic areas or categories (e.g. perceived benefits and barriers). Most interviewees would have the intention to use V2G at long-term parking on condition that they could receive monetary compensation for possible battery degradation, compensation for experienced discomfort and that the (technical) risks of V2G participation are transparently communicated. Furthermore, the interviewees indicated that the use of V2G systems should be simple, easy-to-use and not significantly different from (using) regular charging devices. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that future research should focus on EV drivers that have practical experience with V2G systems. Furthermore, V2G system designers should adopt a consumer-centric approach by focussing on clear-cut information provision for EV users, create business cases so that EV users show a level of content, choose for V2G bi-directional charger vendors and aggregators that offer a user-friendly interface, so that EV drivers can have the option to exert control.
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