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Journal ArticleDOI

Barriers to widespread adoption of electric vehicles: An analysis of consumer attitudes and perceptions

01 Sep 2012-Energy Policy (Elsevier)-Vol. 48, pp 717-729
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify potential socio-technical barriers to consumer adoption of EVs and determine if sustainability issues influence consumer decision to purchase an EV, and provide valuable insights into preferences and perceptions of technology enthusiasts; individuals highly connected to technology development and better equipped to sort out the many differences between EVs and CVs.
About: This article is published in Energy Policy.The article was published on 2012-09-01. It has received 1207 citations till now.
Citations
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Book
14 Dec 2020
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyze the battery electric vehicle segment of the automobile industry from a platform strategy lens and reveal that the vehicle purchase decision is heavily influenced by the availability of a widespread supercharging network as a complementary good.
Abstract: Platform business tactics are highly visible and dominant in business today. Prominent firms in industries such as information services, retail, and travel, have embraced platform thinking. Still, many others are engaged in a platform game without realizing it, often to negative consequences. This monograph develops this theme with an illustrative focus on the battery electric vehicle segment of the automobile industry. It traces the development of the industry, identifies key decisions by various participants, and analyzes these decisions from a platform strategy lens. We emphasize that platform characteristics and network effects are at the core of the electric vehicle industry. A battery electric vehicle is not just a vehicle whose fuel happens to be supplied by the battery. Rather, the vehicle purchase decision is heavily influenced by the availability of a widespread supercharging network as a complementary good. Hence, it is vital for the vehicle maker to ensure that customers have access to both sides of the market—an exciting vehicle and robust supercharging network. An electric vehicle differs from gasoline-powered vehicles in this regard because the refueling network for gasoline vehicles is already robust, widespread, and interoperable across brands, thereby becoming inconsequential to customer adoption decision and firms’ strategy. For electric vehicles, the two-sided platform nature of the industry underlines the need for a well-coordinated strategy on both sides of the market. Our analysis reveals that industry participants (vehicle producers, providers of charging locations, government and policy makers)—with the notable exception of an industry newcomer, Tesla, which has astutely employed platform thinking in its core decisions—have executed a flawed strategy that fails to recognize and leverage the platform aspect of the industry.

5 citations


Cites background or result from "Barriers to widespread adoption of ..."

  • ...To summarize, at this point in the BEV product cycle, the decisions of whether to buy an EV, which one, and how and where to use it, are dependent heavily on the availability and nature of the charging network (Gnann et al., 2018; Egbue and Long, 2012; Haddadian, Khodayar and Shahidehpour, 2015; Linke, 2017), and that this decision process is starkly different from that for buying a traditional gasoline vehicle....

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  • ...…buy an EV, which one, and how and where to use it, are dependent heavily on the availability and nature of the charging network (Gnann et al., 2018; Egbue and Long, 2012; Haddadian, Khodayar and Shahidehpour, 2015; Linke, 2017), and that this decision process is starkly different from that for…...

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Proceedings ArticleDOI
11 Jun 2014
TL;DR: A system that mines EV owners' sentiments from online forums with a precision and recall on par or better than previous opinion mining systems, which finds perceptions that were only realized after the owners possessed their EVs for an extended period of time.
Abstract: Electric Vehicles (EVs) are envisioned to play a large role in the transition from fossil fuel to renewables based transportation. However, their sales thus far are nominal compared to traditional car sales. It has been difficult for manufacturers to measure owners' initial perceptions in order to build improved vehicles more drivers are likely to adopt. Sentiments towards EVs have mostly been determined using either field trials or large surveys of drivers, both of which are problematic. We build a system that mines EV owners' sentiments from online forums. Our system has three main uses. First, it graphs the percentage of positive and negative opinions for each vehicle feature of interest, e.g., battery capacity, giving the user a high level product overview. There is currently no easily-consumable review system for EVs. Second, it allows the user to read opinions about the specific features they are most interested in without searching though irrelevant text. In our case study, we find only 3% of the comments on EV ownership forums express opinions on the features. The system therefore reduces the space of text the user must read by 97%, even assuming they wish to read all opinions about all features. Finally, in addition to mining the same perceptions found during expensive field trials, our system finds perceptions that were only realized after the owners possessed their EVs for an extended period of time, i.e., perceptions not available during shorter trials. The system extracts and classifies opinions with a precision and recall of 60%, which is on par or better than previous opinion mining systems.

5 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Jianhua Guo1, Jiang Yu1, Cui Liu2, Di Zhao1, Yuanbin Yu1 
TL;DR: In this article, a battery electric vehicle (BEV) has been considered as a key factor in decreasing global greenhouse gas emissions and energy conservation, and recent developments in BEVs have heightened the awareness of BEVs.
Abstract: Battery electric vehicle (BEV) has been thought as a key factor in decreasing global greenhouse gas emissions and energy conservation. Therefore, recent developments in BEVs have heightened the nee...

5 citations


Cites background from "Barriers to widespread adoption of ..."

  • ...However, today battery electric vehicles remain an ongoing challenge owe to a battery capacity defect which causes a relatively short-range on battery electric vehicles (Egbue and Long 2012; Manzetti and Mariasiu 2015; Sierzchula et al. 2014; Xu, Meng, and Liu 2017)....

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Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2020
TL;DR: In this article, the authors provide an overview of the current knowledge of plug-in electric vehicles adoption as well as their adopters and the use they make of the vehicles in Germany.
Abstract: This chapter provides an overview of the current knowledge of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) adoption as well as of their adopters and the use they make of the vehicles in Germany. This includes a separate discussion of drivers and barriers in the different segments of the car market (private, fleet and company cars) as well as of the role of charging infrastructure. The chapter summarizes previous studies by the authors on PEV diffusion and usage in Germany and compares the results obtained with those of other studies as well. The chapter concludes with a discussion of key areas for future research on PEV adopters in Germany.

5 citations

References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Ajzen, 1985, 1987, this article reviewed the theory of planned behavior and some unresolved issues and concluded that the theory is well supported by empirical evidence and that intention to perform behaviors of different kinds can be predicted with high accuracy from attitudes toward the behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control; and these intentions, together with perceptions of behavioral control, account for considerable variance in actual behavior.

65,095 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors report results of two questionnaire studies aimed at examining various motives for car use, and investigate individual differences in the relative importance of the three categories of motives were investigated.
Abstract: This paper reports results of two questionnaire studies aimed at examining various motives for car use. In the first study, a random selection of 185 respondents who possess a driving licence were interviewed. Respondents were recruited from the cities of Groningen and Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The sample of the second study comprised a random selection of 113 commuters who regularly travelled during rush hours in and around Rotterdam, a region in the west of the Netherlands. First, it was examined which categories of car use motives may be distinguished. As proposed by Dittmar’s (1992) [The social psychology of material possessions: to have is to be. Havester Wheatsheaf, Hemel Hempstead, UK; St. Martin’s Press, New York] model on the meaning of material possessions, results from both studies revealed that car use not only fulfils instrumental functions, but also important symbolic and affective functions. Second, it was studied to what extent these different motives are related to the level of car use. From the results of study 2, it appeared that commuter car use was most strongly related to symbolic and affective motives, and not to instrumental motives. Third, individual differences in the relative importance of the three categories of motives were investigated. In both studies, most group differences were found in the evaluation of the symbolic and affective motives (and not the instrumental ones). Especially frequent drivers, respondents with a positive car attitude, male and younger respondents valued these non-instrumental motives for car use. These results suggest that policy makers should not exclusively focus on instrumental motives for car use, but they should consider the many social and affective motives as well.

1,064 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the relative efficacy of state sales tax waivers, income tax credits and non-tax incentives for hybrid-electric vehicle adoption in the United States has been studied and shown that the type of tax incentive offered is as important as the value of the tax incentive.
Abstract: Federal, state and local governments use a variety of incentives to induce consumer adoption of hybrid-electric vehicles. We study the relative efficacy of state sales tax waivers, income tax credits and non-tax incentives and find that the type of tax incentive offered is as important as the value of the tax incentive. Conditional on value, we find that sales tax waivers are associated a seven-fold greater increase in hybrid sales than income tax credits. In addition, we estimate the extent to which consumer adoption of hybrid-electric vehicles (HEV) in the United States from 2000-2006 can be attributed to government incentives, changing gasoline prices, or consumer preferences for environmental quality or energy security. After controlling for model specific state and time trends, we find that rising gasoline prices are associated with higher hybrid sales, although the effect operates entirely through sales of the hybrid models with the highest fuel economy. In total, we find that tax incentives, rising gasoline prices and social preferences are associated with 6, 27 and 36 percent of high economy hybrid sales from 2000-2006.

595 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore both the promise and the possible pitfalls of the plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) concept, focusing first on its definition and then on its technical state-of-the-art.

551 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a full year of high-resolution driving data from 484 instrumented gasoline vehicles in the US is used to analyze daily driving patterns, and from those infer the range requirements of electric vehicles (EVs).
Abstract: One full year of high-resolution driving data from 484 instrumented gasoline vehicles in the US is used to analyze daily driving patterns, and from those infer the range requirements of electric vehicles (EVs). We conservatively assume that EV drivers would not change their current gasoline-fueled driving patterns and that they would charge only once daily, typically at home overnight. Next, the market is segmented into those drivers for whom a limited-range vehicle would meet every day’s range need, and those who could meet their daily range need only if they make adaptations on some days. Adaptations, for example, could mean they have to either recharge during the day, borrow a liquid-fueled vehicle, or save some errands for the subsequent day. From this analysis, with the stated assumptions, we infer the potential market share for limited-range vehicles. For example, we find that 9% of the vehicles in the sample never exceeded 100 miles in one day, and 21% never exceeded 150 miles in one day. These drivers presumably could substitute a limited-range vehicle, like electric vehicles now on the market, for their current gasoline vehicle without any adaptation in their driving at all. For drivers who are willing to make adaptations on 2 days a year, the same 100 mile range EV would meet the needs of 17% of drivers, and if they are willing to adapt every other month (six times a year), it would work for 32% of drivers. Thus, it appears that even modest electric vehicles with today’s limited battery range, if marketed correctly to segments with appropriate driving behavior, comprise a large enough market for substantial vehicle sales. An additional analysis examines driving versus parking by time of day. On the average weekday at 5 pm, only 15% of the vehicles in the sample are on the road; at no time during the year are fewer than 75% of vehicles parked. Also, because the return trip home is widely spread in time, even if all cars plug in and begin charging immediately when they arrive home and park, the increased demand on the electric system is less problematic than prior analyses have suggested.

541 citations