Objective of Task

The task aimed to provide a platform to connect stakeholders with researchers working on consumer adoption and use of EVs. The goal was to distil a set of policy-relevant messages from the latest consumer research findings and related discussions in the form of an edited book. The book offers a comprehensive and accessible picture of the state of the art in the field of consumer research on adoption and use of hybrid and electric vehicles. In particular, the book provides:

• an introduction to the field that allows non-experts to navigate the rapidly growing body of evidence,
• a detailed overview of the latest evidence by technology and market and a set of policy-relevant messages that can be derived from it,
• a clear sense of the directions in which the field is evolving, the latest methods and data, and the new insights that these are capable of generating in future.

Working Method

The book compilation involved engaging researchers from key geographic areas: North America, Europe, China, and the Middle East to gather evidence and insights from the latest consumer research.

Results

The book compilation involved engaging researchers from key geographic areas: North America, Europe, China, and the Middle East to gather evidence and insights from the latest consumer research.  Some highlights of the book include:

• The latest empirical evidence with detailed discussion of key methods,
• The effect on EV adoption of evolution of policy support measures in Norway, the Netherlands, Germany, and China
• Qualitative and quantitative methods for the study of attitudes and preferences of early and mainstream adopters, applied to case studies in the UK and Canada

Important themes emerging across the different book chapters include:

• Strong feedback among policy, technology and consumers behavior, the development of which cannot be studied in isolation,
• Majority of EV owners in North America and Europe are multi-car households and their needs can often be satisfied by battery electric vehicles,
• Mainstream adopters and single-car households however seem to prefer plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, which are currently disfavored by policy but may be required to reach high levels of EV penetration,
• EV policy support in many countries today is insufficient to achieve the ambitious penetration levels aimed at by governments,
• Consumer analysis and modelling studies can help assess this gap and design policies that can help meet the targets most effectively.