This report mainly describes research activities as part of the ELVIIS program during Oct. 2011 to June 2013. The overall vision of the ELVIIS-program is to contribute to a mass-adoption of electric vehicles by means of an open architecture platform that enables the development of future new electric vehicle services. The ELVIIS program is cross industry cooperation with the target to facilitate the ownership and promote a broader acceptance of electric vehicles with the use of Information and Communication Technology. The ELVIIS-partners consist of Göteborg Energi, Volvo Car Corporation, Ericsson and Viktoria Swedish ICT.

The ELVIIS program has resulted in a building of a technical architecture demonstrator platform with implemented services currently consisting of charging and billing. The program has been financed by Swedish ICT, Region Västra Götaland and Göteborg Energi forskningsstiftelse. The latter funding has given the possibility to study open innovation possibilities, business models and user experiences. The main part of this report is devoted to these areas and a brief summary follows.

Regarding the open innovation possibilities, it is suggested that a federative ecosystem for electric vehicles could be expected to:

• Increase the ability of users, developers and data providers to generate new, valuable uses that are easy to distribute.
• Improve the ability to distribute innovations across firm specific segments.
• Change the traditional value chains and business models in order to secure a distributed revenue flow over actors in the federative ecosystem
• Act Subsidiary in helping smaller or more local actors to accomplish their respective ends without self arrogating those tasks.

Furthermore, within the project it has been identified that the ELVIIS concept has significant merits compared to charging poles as a charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, not least economically. However, the current state of ELVIIS is such that it is not a selectable choice for actors who need or desire to develop an electric vehicle infrastructure because ELVIIS is not sufficiently diffused among the actors who must adopt it before it becomes usable in practice. For a diffusion process to take place, certain limitations and incentive issues must be solved, and someone must solve them. A potential solutions and a potential change agent that can make them happen are suggested; these are based on interviews and discussions with ELVIIS project members analyzed through theory on diffusion of innovations and adopter discrepancies.

Despite the technical problems occurring during the trial period, user experiences have been captured and it can be determined that the ELVIIS concept present a charging solution that would enhance and ease the driving of electrical vehicles. Furthermore, it can be concluded that ELVIIS is useful and convenient in the day-to-day driving of electric vehicles – it provides the ability to easily access, check, and control the charging process. Most of the users would recommend it to a friend or use itself in an electric vehicle. In particular, the accessibility and availability the smart-phone application provides, presents the best ELVIIS features. The web application provides the feature least appreciated of the ELVIIS concept. In addition, the ELVIIS concept provides features that have the potential to minimise range anxiety and help electric vehicle drivers in utilising the full potential of the vehicle range by providing the ability to control/check/set/access the charging.

The ELVIIS concept has the potential to be a much cheaper charging infrastructure solution compared to the building of expensive intelligent charging poles, advocated by charging pole suppliers and utilities. If all motor heaters and ordinary outlets can be counted as charging points, the number of charging places currently suggested by EU is already achieved. It is our strong belief that ELVIIS, if implemented in large scale, will contribute to a quicker mass-adoption of electric vehicles.