Driving on Sunshine: Aligning Electric Vehicle Charging and Household Electricity Production

Electric vehicle seems to go well together with the growing societal trend of becoming more self-supplying with renewable electricity produced in the household. However, aligning household electricity production and electric vehicle charging have received little attention in HCI although both areas have been pursued separately for a number of years. In this paper, we present findings from a qualitative study that explore the potential of aligning electric vehicle charging with times where renewable electricity is being produced in the household. We present an empirical qualitative study of 5 households (19 persons) that own electric vehicles and also produce their own renewable electricity. Our findings, described in five themes, reveal that aligning charging and electricity production can be a challenge and tension exist for aligning consumption such as motivation, roles, mobility patterns, and electricity producing technology. We further discuss our findings and possible directions for future HCI research in the field.