Incentives for Electric Vehicles Adoption

Electric vehicles (plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles) are an essential component for the decarbonization of the passenger transport sector in Switzerland. Nevertheless, their market share is currently a small percentage of the whole vehicle fleet, and there is not yet a clear understanding on which measures would help promoting the adoption of electric vehicles by the broader population. The goal of our project is to measure the effectiveness of a series of non-monetary treatments aimed to increase the adoption of electric vehicles among owners of internal combustion engine vehicles. To do so, we will first identify a series of treatments that are targeted to different behavioral or informational barriers preventing the adoption of electric vehicles. Examples of possible treatments are information on lifetime costs of vehicles, on environmental impact, on physical characteristics of electric vehicles, or suggestions of specific electric vehicle models based on individual preferences. These treatments would be informed by recent studies in economics and behavioral science. We will then pre-test these treatments in a lab setting using an online tool, and we will select the most promising ones. Finally, we would implement the selected treatments by sending a letter to actual AMAG customers in a field experiment setting. We aim to target AMAG car leasing customers whose contract is about to expire and thus are about to choose a new car within the project timeframe. To measure the effectiveness of our treatments, we would then compare the vehicle choices of individuals who received one of the treatments with the choices of individuals who received no treatment. Our results would offer car retailers and other stakeholders clear and rigorous insights on which treatments are most effective in accelerating the adoption of electric cars in the passenger transport sector.