Evaluating good practices for the promotion of electromobility using multi criteria analysis methods

Abstract

Electromobility and alternative fuels are considered to be significant players towards the reduction of energy consumption and emissions produced by road transportation sector. Governments, municipalities, public and private authorities, and institutions take significant steps for promoting these technologies by adopting effective, efficient and targeted measures and actions, named as Good Practices. The aim of this work is to develop and present a methodology for evaluating Good Practices based on predefined criteria, using Multi criteria Decision Analysis techniques. For this purpose, 20 Good Practices implemented in 9 European Regions aiming at diffusing electromobility were selected for applying the proposed methodology. More specifically, the selected practices were evaluated by regional groups of experts based on 6 criteria: relative advantage, environmental benefit, energy systems, awareness, vehicle performance and ease of use. Followingly, the Analytical Hierarchy Process was applied for estimating the weights of these criteria while the Weighted Sum Model was then used for calculating the final score and rank the Good Practices accordingly. The results showed that practices offering significant environmental benefits and improved energy systems received higher scores than those contributing in raising public awareness or proving an advantage of electric vehicles over the conventional ones. The results of this work are further analyzed and discussed.