University of Twente Student Theses
Hydbrid car owners' preferences for electric vehicles
Feitsma, G. (2015) Hydbrid car owners' preferences for electric vehicles.
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| Abstract: | A data analysis is performed to quantify consumer preferences for full electric vehicles (FEVs) and plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs). The role of the current car type was specifically examined by comparing the preferences of hybrid car owners to conventional car owners. Current owners of a hybrid car are an interesting car owners segment for EV adoption as they already bought a more environmental-friendly car before and already have experience with (partially) electric drivetrains. Car choice in in uenced by instrumental, symbolic and affective factors. Consequently, consumer preferences for instrumental attributes are quantified. In addition, the role of symbolic and affective factors in consumer willingness to buy is examined. Finally, the preferences of PHEV drivers for future FEV adoption are explored. Three existing data sets were made available for this data analysis. The first data set contains data from a stated choice experiment about instrumental attributes, and is therefore used to quantify conventional and hybrid car owners' preferences for instrumental FEV/PHEV attributes. The second data set contains Likert scale data from a survey about symbolic and affective factors. This data set originates from a follow-up survey on the first survey on instrumental attributes. The third data set contains data about current PHEV driver experiences with and preferences for EVs and the charging infrastructure. This data originates from the 2014 Dutch National Survey Electric Driving (NSED). This data set is used to search for indications in the preferences of PHEV drivers that suggest a high likelihood of buying a FEV as a next car. The preferences for instrumental car attributes have been examined by estimating mixed logit models for both conventional car owners and hybrid car owners. The instrumental attributes examined in the models were: purchase price, monthly costs, driving range, recharge time and additional detour time for appropriate fuel stations. Conventional car owners show a high negative intrinsic preference of around AC18,000 for PHEVs and FEVs compared to conventional cars, excluding the price difference between EVs and conventional cars. Accounting for this price difference increases the negative intrinsic preference further by AC5,000-AC10,000. This negative intrinsic preference is high with respect to their purchase price of around AC40,000. This implies that substantial subsidies are need to bridge the gap between conventional cars and EVs. Hybrid car owners are shown to have a less negative intrinsic preference for FEVs and PHEVs. Conventional car owners are willing to pay AC25.80/km additional range and respectively AC6.04/km and AC28.36/km for reduced FEV and PHEV charging times. Hybrid car owners are less willing to pay for increased instrumental functionality than conventional car owners. This implies that policies stimulating technological development of EVs have less effect for hybrid car owners than for conventional car owners. The role of symbolic and affective factors in the preference for FEVs and PHEVs was examined by estimating ordinal logit models for both conventional and hybrid car owners. Symbolic and affective scales, personal identity factors and socio-economic variables were used as independent variables in the analysis. Symbolic and affective factors play a statistically significant positive role in the willingness to buy a FEV or a PHEV. This also yields for a positive perception of EV reliability, exibility and environmental performance. This implies that EV sales can also be stimulated by policy measures like FEV experience programs. Furthermore, it is shown that people with a proenvironmental personal identity are more likely to buy a FEV or a PHEV. Hybrid car owners are shown to find the environmental performance more important, whereas conventional car owners find exibility and reliability more important. Consequently, FEV experience programs are more effective fro conventional car owners, whereas promotional campaigns emphasizing on the environmental benefits of EVs are expected to be more effective for hybrid car owners. The preferences of PHEV drivers are explored with the data set of the NSED. PHEV drivers are shown to match the early adopter characteristics of being younger, more highly educated and having more cars in the household than the average conventional car owner. Furthermore PHEV driver's car uses patterns are similar to that of current FEV drivers, suggesting that PHEV driver car use pattern is also feasible with a FEV. PHEV drivers find fuel cost and emissions the most important monetary and non-monetary factors. These findings are beneficial for FEV adoption. PHEV drivers find purchase price more important than maintenance costs, whereas the opposite yields for FEV drivers. This is unfavorable for future FEV choice of PHEV owners as FEVs generally have a higher purchase price than PHEVs. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | ET: Engineering Technology |
| Subject: | 56 civil engineering |
| Programme: | Civil Engineering and Management MSc (60026) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/68753 |
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