Assessing policy interventions to stimulate the transition of electric vehicle technology in the EU

The European Union (EU) is setting foot to progressively decrease fossil fuel dependency as well as to decarbonize the entire energy and automotive system, aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050. As such, road transportation plays a great role in this process. Internal combustion engines (ICE) are to be slowly decommissioned as other powertrain systems arise for multiple reasons - from greenhouse gas emissions to urban air quality, the sector urges change. To change both the technological and consumer landscapes, governments must act through policy-making intervention. Electric vehicles (EV) provide a significant opportunity to address this issue and as such, the current work aims at assessing national level policy intervention within the EU regarding EV transition. This study relies on the ELECTRE TRI-nC method to classify 27 EU Members States regarding their national governance in terms of the promotion of EV technology. Overall, financial incentives still play a big effect on EV deployment, since those countries with greater concern on this topic were generally better classified than the rest. Finally, charging infrastructures also play a critical role, either making or breaking the deployment of EV, leading to the worst classification of Member States, with very little charging points per 100k urban inhabitants.