How to promote electromobility for European car drivers? Obstacles to overcome for a broad market penetration

Introduction Electric vehicles can be a successful mobility alternative, but several obstacles and challenges have to be overcome first. Especially the customers' purchase decision determines whether an innovation like electromobility will be eventually successful. The objective of this paper covers the investigation of consumer's attitude towards electric vehicles and their opinion on potential promotion measures and its impact on market penetration scenarios in different countries. Methods The aforementioned issues were investigated via a European wide online consumer survey. It was designed to identify the awareness of potential consumers of electric cars as well as to discover their attitude towards this new technology. In addition to the picture of potential demand-related obstacles, the consumers were asked to evaluate the suitability of various promotion measures. Finally, the findings were included in an agent based vehicle market model which specifies consumer demand and market supply of electromobility scenarios. Results The results show that the consumer attitude towards electromobility is rather positive and electric vehicles are generally perceived as environment-friendly and secure. But the high acquisition costs and the uncertainty about the operating costs deter consumers from purchasing an electric car. First results of the inclusion of potential promotion measures such as financial incentives in a scenario based market model show a significant increase of the electric vehicle uptake in Germany. Conclusions Potential customers have high expectations regarding the comfort and range of an electric vehicle. One of the most important barriers and obstacles for a broad market uptake are the currently high purchase prices for this new technology. Therefore, it seems quite necessary to make electric vehicles from a customer's standpoint more attractive. From the customer's perspective a dense network of charging stations and financial measures such as tax and energy cost reductions are vital prerequisites in order to convince them to buy an electric vehicle. Finally, it has been proven within a scenario based market model for Germany that the use of different promotion measures by the national government can enhance the market share of electric vehicles substantially until 2030.