Smart Charging Needs, Wants and Demands, Charging Experiences and Opinions of EV Drivers

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The presented study in this manuscript discusses the electric vehicles drivers’ opinion on the need for smart charging. Such a study is needed to evaluate more options for future EV adoption and promoting clean transportation.  
The study seemed to rely on surveying about 1800 EV drivers. However, it was not clear if the authors are the ones who conducted the survey or just obtained the survey results from references [4]-[6]. The reviewer hoped to see a table of more survey questions in order to assess the situation in a more effective strategy. Furthermore, all answer options, as well as the results, should be included in a clearer way.
The reviewer would suggest the following changes to be addressed and applied to maintain a comprehensive study:
1.    The abstract does not highlight the main contributions and findings.
2.    The manuscript includes many numbers and statistical percentages that are better to be presented in more figures for better assessment and digestion.
3.    Line 19: “The (the) Dutch Association for EV Drivers (VER)”, please revise!
4.    Line 29: please organize the keywords alphabetically
5.    Lines 36-37: please add the question mark for every separate question.
6.    Figure 1: has no introductory or explanatory test with the manuscript. Please add.
7.    Line 85-108: the three paragraphs include important information that can be presented in a better way or even supported by any data visualization.
8.    It is highly recommended to connect Figure 2 with the paragraph (lines 110-113). By using, for example, “the charging mix is illustrated in Figure 2”. The same applies to all other figures, as it is not enough to just place the figure without any explanations!
9.    For all Figures:” please clarify what the letter “N” represents to emphasize its role. Furthermore, why does the value of N change, while the total number is 1800 respondents as stated in (line 71). Authors can elaborate more on the Figures' captions.
10.    There are two typos in Figure 3: (energgy) & (schale)
11.    None of the used references is a peer-reviewed article which makes the creditability of this study questioned! This study should be supported by accredited studies.

Author Response

Thanks for the comments and suggestions for improvement. Authors (Hiep and Gardien) have conducted the survey and have written the report.. Names added in ref. 6.

A question regarding more survey questions. Unfortunatelly authors are limited in number of pages for this article. However, the original publication does provide these questions, see  Rapport_Nationaal_Laadonderzoek_2020.pdf (elaad.nl)

To clarify the options and results asked by the reviewer, the following changes have been made:

1. Main contributions and findings are high lighted in abstract 
2. Authors have many figures, see Rapport_Nationaal_Laadonderzoek_2020.pdf (elaad.nl). To present all numbers and statistical percentages in figures the article would be more a power point presentation then a WEVJ article. 
3. Comment on lines 19, 29, 36-37: adjusted, done 
4. Text added by fig. 1.
5. Authors have asked a native speaker to improve the English texts.
6. Added: “the charging mix is illustrated in Figure 2”, as well for other figures
7. Not all respondents answered all questions, therefor in Figures 1-4 the number of respondents is shown by the letter “N”. This text is added to paragraph 2, “set up”.
8. Typos corrected
9. References added, publications by Elaad colleagues, all accredited studies

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The subject and research scope of the article is very topical and concerns electromobility. This global trend is observed in many countries around the world. Every year, the number of electric vehicles sold increases. An infrastructure for charging electric vehicle batteries is also being built. In addition, electricity from renewable energy sources is increasingly used to charge vehicle batteries. Many scientists are conducting research on the optimization of the charging process of traction batteries.
The introduction is not enough. It contains too little content and lacks a thorough analysis of many research areas. The introduction should be expanded to include the following areas:
- size of the electric vehicle market in the Netherlands and Europe as a whole (present numbers)
- size of electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the Netherlands and Europe as a whole (present numbers). A distinction should be made between slow charging (Type 2 connector) and fast charging (CCS and Chademo connectors)
- use of renewable energy sources for charging electric vehicles (photovoltaic farms and carports)
- a detailed description of the known and used smart charging technologies
- description of future smart charging technologies

The analysis should be made on the basis of the 20 most recent scientific articles. Then the bibliography will be sufficient. 

The research was planned and carried out properly. Very interesting results were obtained, which were correctly presented.

Author Response

Thanks for the comments and suggestions for improvement.

- Added size of the electric vehicle market in the Netherlands and Europe as a whole (present numbers)
- Added size of electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the Netherlands and Europe as a whole (present numbers). A distinction between fast and Type 2 connector charging is not relevant for this article, since smart charging is in practice not done at fast charging stations.
- Numbers regarding the use of renewable energy sources for charging electric vehicles (photovoltaic farms and carports) are very relevant, but out of scope of this article. Given the restricted number of pages, these numbers can’t be embedded in the text.
The same applies for a detailed description of the known and used smart charging technologies
and a description of future smart charging technologies in the introduction. Elaad has a number of publications on technological development, but length of of article make it that these can’t be embedded in the article. However, see reference 21, links to the smart charging guide where techniques are explained.

Scientific articles regarding smart charging added. However, the topic “smart charging and consumer adoption” is new. No scientific articles have been published yet. Some EV driver associations (Forth, Veloz, Elbil) have done first surveys. Where relevant, these are mentioned.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The reviewer would like to thank the authors for addressing the notes that enhance the quality of the article and wishing them the best. 

Reviewer 2 Report

Revised version was improved enough good.