Attitude of European car drivers towards electric vehicles: a survey

CO2 emissions from road transport have risen significantly in the past and projections show that they will continue to rise in the future if no adequate policy measures are implemented. Several European initiatives aim at reducing CO2 emissions from passenger vehicles. A potential option to reduce passenger vehicle CO2 emissions is the deployment of electric vehicles (EV). Consumer perception and willingness to purchase these new vehicle technologies lies at the heart of its successful large scale diffusion. This report aims at describing and analyzing how car drivers in the six countries France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and United Kingdom consider electric cars, how familiar they are with the electric car concept and its main features. It investigates, which features of EVs people consider essential in terms of propensity to consider electric cars a realistic alternative in case they wanted to purchase a new car. 600 drivers on average per each of the six Member States responded to the questionnaire. As a result we derive an “ideal” composition of an electric car in terms of car purchase price, range, re-charge time and maximum speed. The perspective of the European car drivers, as derived from this study, highlights the importance of further R&D investments to improve some of the performance characteristics of electric vehicles. It provides some guidance which performance aspects matter most for car drivers, notably costs and range. The study finds that the familiarity of car drivers with the electric vehicle aspects is lower when direct exposure or driving experience would be needed to properly assess these aspects. This stresses the need of demonstration activities in order to increase public awareness of electro-mobility and also to receive first hand feedback from car drivers on their experience operating an electric vehicle. A majority of the respondents considers that public incentives are needed to foster a wider market deployment of electric vehicles. Furthermore the study shows that an adequate re-charge network is perceived as crucial by car drivers. It can be concluded that European car drivers see the opportunities that electric vehicles could offer but that a number of pre-requisites need to be fulfilled in order to ensure that the car drivers can consider electric vehicles as a credible vehicle choice.JRC.F.6-Energy systems evaluatio

Driving and parking patterns of European car drivers – a mobility survey

The development of innovative vehicles such as electric driven cars is an important potential option for improving the sustainability of the transport sector. A significant penetration of electric vehicles in the market is possible only if their use is compatible with mobility patterns of individuals. For instance, the driven distance should be compatible with the batteries range or parking patterns should enable re-charging. The JRC-IET together with TRT and IPSOS analyzed car mobility patterns derived from direct surveys in six European Union Member States (France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and United Kingdom). The report aims at providing some insights on how electric vehicles could fit mobility habits of European car drivers. The analysis is based on the data collected within six European countries by means of a sample survey. A web-based car trips diary was filled in by on average 600 individuals in each country. The individuals logged for 7 consecutive days their driving and parking patterns in 5 minute intervals. For each trip several details such as departure and arrival time, distance and parking place were registered. Socioeconomic characteristics of individuals were also collected. The same questionnaire format was used in all countries allowing for comparability of responses. Representativeness of the derived data was ensured by weighting and aligning the received sample to the socio-demographic reference universe of each member state. Survey results are statistically analyzed to describe mobility patterns. In particular, the information on average number of car trips per day, daily travel distance, daily travel time, trip distance, distribution of parking and driving, distribution of parking places, trip purposes, duration of parking and many other parameters per Member State are analyzed and presented in the report. Moreover, the analysis of the survey data shows which share of driving patterns are compatible with the use of electric cars with their current technical features (batteries range, re-charge time) under alternative assumptions about the availability of re-charge facilities. Also differences and similarities between countries and user groups are discussed. Overall, the results of the survey provide representative driving profiles for estimating the charging profiles of electric vehicles and many other indications on how people use their car. The outcomes of the survey provide relevant methodological hints to develop similar surveys in other contexts or to repeat the survey in other countries.JRC.F.6-Energy systems evaluatio