Designing a Peer-to-Peer Sharing Service as Fuel for the Development of the Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure

Abstract

The general public and politics discuss electric vehicles (EVs) as promising means for achieving clean, carbon-free, and sustainable individual transportation. However, an insufficient charging infrastructure hampers a rapid diffusion of EVs. At the same time, investors have refrained from developing an EV-charging infrastructure on a large scale because of the limited demand for EVs. Against this backdrop, peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing and collaborative consumption (SCC) is a promising strategy with which to address this problem. This article describes the concept of an IT-based P2P SCC service and the research activities needed for its design. We do so by introducing a novel application of the sharing economy. Our primary contribution is to take a step toward finding a solution for a problem in the EV domain that is relevant for society. A second contribution lies in the introduction and discussion of predominantly infrastructure-creating (PIC) P2P SCC services and their characteristics.