EVAdopt: De-biasing Electric Vehicle Adoption with Personalized Nudging
The team from the Centre for Energy Policy and Economics at ETH Zurich analyzed some of the most important psychological barriers towards increasing EV adoption within the framework of the Mobitiy Initiative program. Here are the main conclusions from the stated choice randomized control trial which have been also discussed also in the last CSFM Seminar.
Electric vehicles are an essential component for the decarbonization of the passenger transport sector. Nevertheless, their market share is currently a small percentage of the whole vehicle fleet, and there is not yet a clear understanding of which measures would help promote the adoption of electric vehicles by the broader population.
The goal of the EVAdopt project was to measure the effectiveness of a series of non-monetary treatments aimed at increasing the adoption of electric vehicles among car owners.
The research was conducted by Ursa Bernardic, Davide Cerruti and Jonas Savelsberg, and was led by Professor Massimo Filippini from the Center for Energy Policy and Economics (CEPE) at ETH Zurich, in collaboration with Professor Giuseppe Ugazio from the Geneva Finance Research Institute.
Main conclusions
The results show striking perceptual biases of car owners concerning their range and charging needs that are typically overestimated while the cost advantages of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are underestimated.
Ursa Bernardic and her colleagues at the Center for Energy Policy and Economics summarized what they learned:
“Most car owners have misperceptions about the number of trips they would have to interrupt per year to recharge if they owned a BEV, the number of charging instances needed per week, and the cost advantages of electric cars.”Dr. Ursa Bernardic, Center for Energy Policy and Economics, ETH Zurich
"Hence, addressing these psychological barriers and concerns with personalized information that is based on driving and parking behavior of each individual, can be a scalable non-monetary intervention to increase EV adoption and complement other policy instruments.”
The team recently published a Download policy brief (PDF, 1.4 MB) summarizing key recommendations resulting from this research work that could be very relevant for policymakers, car manufacturers, and dealerships. The external page working paper with a detailed description of the study is also available.
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Figure 1: Psychological barriers for real and perceived range compatibility -
Figure 2: Psychological barriers for real and perceived charging compatibility -
Figure 3: Psychological barriers for real and perceived TCO compatibility.
The team greatly appreciates the constructive support from the Center for Sustainable Future Mobility at ETH Zürich and the discussion with AMAG. They hope the results of this study could be further tested and used by car manufacturers, and dealers with current car owners that are in the decision process of changing the car. Further, the results of this study could be used by policymakers in designing new policy instruments to promote electric vehicle adoption.
Bernardic, U., Cerruti, D., Filippini, M., Savelsberg, J., Ugazio, G. "De-biasing electric vehicle adoption with personalized nudging", Economics Working Paper Series, Vol. 24/390, 2024. DOI: external page 10.3929/ethz-b-000663125.
Bernardic, U., Cerruti, D., Filippini, M., Savelsberg, J., Ugazio, G. "EVAdopt: De-biasing electric vehicle adoption with personalized nudging", Policy Brief, 2024. Download Download (PDF, 1.4 MB)