Electric vehicles offer the potential of climate-friendly driving and have received more and more attention in diffusion research recently. However, the effect of the availability of home charging options on the market potential of electric vehicles has not been targeted in detail in the diffusion process so far, although it represents a beneficial differentiation to conventional vehicles. Therefore, we present an agent-based simulation to address the buying behavior of German consumers regarding electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles using empirical data primarily derived from a choice-based conjoint study. We explicitly consider individual possibilities of home charging in our model, which appears to have an important influence on the diffusion of both, electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. However, its importance decreases with faster charging times at public charging stations. Furthermore, our findings reveal that in the longer term, technological progress in charging time, range, and charging station density of electric vehicles is presumably cannibalizing plug-in hybrid electric vehicles’ market shares more than that of conventional vehicles. However, with still lower technological capabilities of electric vehicles, a governmental subsidy can initially promote plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, but electric vehicles will benefit later from that promotional effect.

Home charging and electric vehicle diffusion: Agent-based simulation using choice-based conjoint data

The circular economy (CE) has gained importance in the post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery. Businesses, while realising the CE benefits, have challenges in justifying and evaluating the CE benefits usi...

Conceptualising Circular economy performance with non-traditional valuation methods: Lessons for a post-Pandemic recovery

The Internet of things model enables a world in which all of our everyday devices can be integrated and communicate with each other and their surroundings to gather and share data and simplify task implementation. Such an Internet of things environment would require seamless authentication, data protection, stability, attack resistance, ease of deployment, and self-maintenance, among other things. Blockchain, a technology that was born with the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, may fulfill Internet of things requirements. However, due to the characteristics of both Internet of things devices and Blockchain technology, integrating Blockchain and the Internet of things can cause several challenges. Despite a large number of papers that have been published in the field of Blockchain and the Internet of things, the problems of this combination remain unclear and scattered. Accordingly, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive survey of the challenges related to Blockchain–Internet of things integration by evaluating the related peer-reviewed literature. The paper also discusses some of the recommendations for reducing the effects of these challenges. Moreover, the paper discusses some of the unsolved concerns that must be addressed before the next generation of integrated Blockchain–Internet of things applications can be deployed. Lastly, future trends in the context of Blockchain–Internet of things integration are discussed.

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Internet of Things and Blockchain Integration: Security, Privacy, Technical, and Design Challenges

The effect of customer-perceived value when paying for a product with personal data: A real-life experimental study

Given the various advantages of electric vehicles compared to conventional gasoline vehicles in terms of energy efficiency and environmental pollution (among others), this paper studies the factors affecting customers’ willingness to purchase electric vehicles. An integrated discrete choice and agent-based approach is applied to model the customers’ choice for the valuation of electric vehicles based on the internal reference price. The agent-based model evaluates customers’ preferences for a number of personal and vehicle attributes, according to which vehicle they chose. Data from 376 respondents are collected to estimate a random-parameter logit model where customers are asked to reveal their preferences about five attributes of electric vehicles, including travel range, top speed, charge cost, government incentives, and price. The role of social networks of customers and their threshold purchase price is also examined in the agent-based model. The scenario simulation results indicate that the allocation of government incentives for electric vehicles, decreasing electric vehicle/non-electric vehicle price gap, expanding electric vehicle travel range, increasing gasoline prices, and enhancing electric vehicle top speed stimulate electric vehicle market shares, respectively.

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Policy Instruments for the Improvement of Customers’ Willingness to Purchase Electric Vehicles: A Case Study in Iran

Upcoming cryptocurrency approaches claim to enable feeless micropayments. Assuming that this promise will be kept, this is likely to give rise to new business models that entail transactions worth fractions of a cent. In this mini review, we describe two exemplary application cases and outline the associated research activities for each. The first case considers subscription models in consumer markets for which feeless micropayments might be used to expand and, thus, enrich the range of plans by offering shorter subscription times. The second case is concerned with prosumers who might be willing to sell self-generated data (e.g., data generated through their smart meters).

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Feeless Micropayments as Drivers for New Business Models: Two Exemplary Application Cases

Agent-based models are currently in wide use in innovation and technology diffusion research, as they are able to capture the inherent complexity arising from adoption processes and they allow the consideration of various influences of the underlying social systems. While they are sometimes criticized as “toy models”, agent-based models often do not reach their full potential if they lack an empirical foundation. Therefore, we present an agent-based simulation that addresses consumers’ adoption behavior of electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in Germany using various empirical data sources for parametrization and validation. In particular, we conducted a focus group and a choice-based conjoint study. Additionally, our model is to our knowledge the first that takes into account explicitly and comprehensively the supply of home charging options.

An Agent-Based Simulation Using Conjoint Data: The Case of Electric Vehicles in Germany

Information and data fuel businesses and markets; thus, provision, generation, and interpretation of information and data are crucial to support managerial decisions. We demonstrate the generation of information through choice-based conjoint analysis using the example of electric vehicle charging. There are several alternatives for electric vehicle charging, with home charging being the main charging point for most of today’s electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Therefore, a large number of consumers consider home charging as mandatory when buying a car. Before blindly investing in the construction of charging stations close to citizens’ homes, decision makers (e.g., policy makers) need to learn about the impact of possible measures. This paper examines whether performance improvements in alternative vehicles (e.g., in terms of range or charging time) or governmental incentives (e.g., price subsidies) could compensate consumers for not having home charging stations. Findings reveal that, in general, both electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles profit from the construction of home charging stations, but its perceived benefit decreases continuously with faster charging times at public charging stations. However, at the present time, when the technological progress of electric vehicles remains low, monetary subsidies for environmentally friendly vehicles appear to mainly support only sales of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

Marvin Klein

Papers

Home charging and electric vehicle diffusion: Agent-based simulation using choice-based conjoint data

Feeless Micropayments as Drivers for New Business Models: Two Exemplary Application Cases

An Agent-Based Simulation Using Conjoint Data: The Case of Electric Vehicles in Germany

Business Information Through Choice-Based Conjoint Analysis: The Case of Electric Vehicle Home Charging