Spatial and Individual Characteristics for Battery Electric Vehicle Adoption
A new paper by the ISTP researchers Gracia Brückmann, Fabian Willibald & Victor Blanco will be presented at the 42nd International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE) Annual Conference in Montréal, Canada taking place from May 29 to June 1, 2019.
Individual motorized transport is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and needs to be reduced in order to meet international agreements. Although alternatives to internal combustion engine vehicles are already on the market, without extensive political support, global adoption rates remain low.
This paper presents the analysis of a novel revealed preference data set on battery electric vehicle (BEV) and conventional car holders from official sources. In combination with home location-based data, this allows for testing hypothesis on consumer and spatial characteristics of current BEV holders. A Logistic Generalized Linear Model estimating battery electric vehicle ownership shows that, for the first years of commercialization in Switzerland, ownership is predicted by environmental concern, ownership of multiple cars, male gender, living in one’s own house, and by public charger availability.
Altogether, the study at hand offers important insights to policy makers, energy grid and charging infrastructure operators, as well as the automotive industry, on the characteristics of early adopters of BEVs in a region free from strong EV policies.