Maximizing Smart Charging of EVs: The Impact of Privacy and Money on Data Sharing

Smart charging has the potential to shift peak load to times of lower demand, which better exploits renewable generation and enhances grid resilience. For increased effectiveness, smart charging requires access to data that consumers might be hesitant to share. To explore which data consumers would share and which factors influence this decision, we adopt the Barth and de Jong’s risk-benefit calculation framework to smart charging and conduct an online-survey (n = 479). We find that most respondents who would share charging details with a smart charging application, are ambivalent about location data and would never share calendar details. When presented with concrete monetary rewards, participants lose their initial reservations and would share all data for an amount dependent on the data’s sensitivity. Thus, our study contributes to research on the privacy paradox by highlighting the importance of calculations between perceived risks and benefits for the decision to share data.