ANALISYS OF USER PREFERENCES ON ELECTRIC MOBILITY IN FOUR EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

Electric vehicles are seen as one of the most promising sustainable alternative in the current fight against increasing pollution worldwide. However, they are still seeing a limited spread among drivers. Behind buying an electric vehicle, or deciding when and where to charge it, there are evaluations strongly influenced by costs, technology characteristics, user experience and several other aspects. One of the challenges is to deepen the knowledge about the users’ perceptions of these aspects. The paper presents the relevant results obtained from two Stated Choice (SC) experiments on users’ preferences on electric mobility. Participants are asked to select, among a limited set of alternatives (each characterized by a list of attributes), the one they prefer. The first part of the survey investigates aspects related to car ownership. Different powertrain technologies are included in the study, electric and not, to represent a scenario as realistic as possible. To complete the set of alternatives’ attributes, the availability of incentives on purchase and utilization are also included. The second part focuses on the features of the charging infrastructure. Charging points may be selected, for example, for their location, maximum charging power, which impacts on the duration of charging, or the cost of electricity, to mention the most important. Knowing the different behavior of EV drivers in typical situations, such as on a long journey on a highway or in an urban context, two experiments are carried out, tailoring the available charging points typology for the two choice situations. Responses to 16 734 choice situations have been collected among four European countries (Italy, Spain, Netherlands and Estonia). The analysis of the results may be used to give a big picture on the sample and their preference to identify the main factors considered by users in adopting ad recharging electric vehicles, also in future conditions, as may be of interest for city planners and decision makers.