Electric vehicles: Improving consumer information to encourage adoption

Panel: 4. Transport and mobility: How to deliver energy efficiency

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Neil Wallis, LowCVP & ETCC Associates, United Kingdom
Ben Lane, NextGreenCar

Abstract

Range anxiety, uncertainties associated with battery life and other factors relating to this new and unfamiliar technology are known to be important in inhibiting electric vehicle uptake by consumers. A number of studies and demonstration projects have already taken place in the UK and elsewhere to identify the key factors inhibiting adoption. This paper aims to synthesise the findings from existing studies and briefly discuss opportunities for eliminating the barriers resulting from insufficient or misleading information.

The paper will focus, in particular, on efforts in the UK to integrate information about electric vehicles into the colour-coded fuel economy label. In Europe as well as the US, the label is an important mechanism to encourage car buyers to pay attention to the fuel economy and emissions of vehicles available for purchase.

This paper reports on a study undertaken in early 2012 in the UK using six deliberative workshops to ascertain the views and understanding of private car buyers when presented with alternative fuel economy label designs including comparative fuel cost and environmental information. This was followed by an on-line survey (N=1000) of UK car buyers which probed more into the potential influence of the label on future car purchases.

Results will reveal how information on the label is conceptualized and (dis)trusted, the relative importance of the different metrics and some detailed observations about the framing of the information. The paper will reveal how subtleties in the way in which the information is laid out can make a difference to its impact and will question whether principles from behavioural economics, such as herd mentality, loss-aversion and heuristics can be used to guide future improvements in labelling design.