Abstract
• Empirical insights on adoption of e-mobility product service systems are provided. • The question whether product service systems can support EV adoption is analyzed. • Research approach combines techno-economical evaluations with behavioral aspects. • Organizations’ additional willingness to pay for EV compensates their higher costs. • Smart platform services could increase benefits of e-mobility product service systems. Plug-in electric vehicles are seen as a promising option to reduce oil dependency, greenhouse gas emissions, particulate matter pollution, nitrogen oxide emissions and noise caused by individual road transportation. But how is it possible to foster diffusion of plug-in electric vehicles? Our research focuses on the question whether e-mobility product service systems (i.e. plug-in electric vehicles, interconnected charging infrastructure as well as charging platform and additional services) are supportive to plug-in electric vehicle adoption in professional environments. Our user oriented techno-economic analysis of costs and benefits is based on empirical data originating from 109 organizational fleets participating in a field trial in south-west Germany with in total 327 plug-in electric vehicles and 181 charging points. The results show that organizations indicate a high willingness to pay for e-mobility product service systems. Organizations encounter non-monetary benefits, which on average overcompensate the current higher total cost of ownership of plug-in electric vehicles compared to internal combustion engine vehicles. However, the willingness to pay for e-mobility charging infrastructure and services alone is currently not sufficient to cover corresponding actual costs. The paper relates the interconnected charging infrastructure solutions under study to the development of the internet of things and smarter cities and draws implications on this development.
Highlights
Increasing awareness of the transport sector’s significant contribution to climate change, oil dependency, particulate matter pollution, nitrogen oxide emissions and noise in urban areas has resulted in activities for road transport electrification
Substituting internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEV) with plug-in electric vehicles (EV), i.e. full battery electric vehicles (BEV), range extended electric vehicles (REEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), seems a very promising step to cope with the challenges of individual road transport and fits to the smart city paradigm, which has become one of the most important urban strategies to foster green growth and to improve urban sustainability against the backdrop of climate change (March, 2016)
The results concerning costs and benefits of EV, EVSE and e-mobility services are combined in order to calculate net benefits of the whole e-mobility product service system (PSS) (Section 3.3)
Summary
Increasing awareness of the transport sector’s significant contribution to climate change, oil dependency, particulate matter pollution, nitrogen oxide emissions and noise in urban areas has resulted in activities for road transport electrification. Substituting internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEV) with plug-in electric vehicles (EV), i.e. full battery electric vehicles (BEV), range extended electric vehicles (REEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), seems a very promising step to cope with the challenges of individual road transport and fits to the smart city paradigm, which has become one of the most important urban strategies to foster green growth and to improve urban sustainability against the backdrop of climate change (March, 2016). Despite the risks accompanying hyper-connected societies (Rifkin, 2014), the common notion is that in smart cities information and communication technologies (ICT) are used to increase citizens’ quality of life while contributing to sustainability (Cocchia, 2014; Yeh, 2017).
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