IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijatma/v14y2014i3-4p306-323.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Urban, sub-urban or rural: where is the best place for electric vehicles?

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Newman
  • Peter Wells
  • Ceri Donovan
  • Paul Nieuwenhuis
  • Huw Davies

Abstract

This paper critiques the assumption that an urban setting is the most appropriate for electric vehicles. In so doing, it questions the implementation of transitions theory and socio-technical experiments in the quest to establish electric vehicles as an alternative to the existing automobility regime. For vehicle owners and infrastructure providers alike, as with society generally, the benefits of electric vehicles are maximised when usage is most intense; a difficult situation to achieve in urban areas aside from light commercial delivery and service applications. Using case study information from electric vehicle trials under the ENEVATE research programme into users of such vehicles in North West Europe, it is concluded that more policy and research attention should be given to sub-urban and rural electric vehicle applications as promising niches from which wider socio-technical change may develop.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Newman & Peter Wells & Ceri Donovan & Paul Nieuwenhuis & Huw Davies, 2014. "Urban, sub-urban or rural: where is the best place for electric vehicles?," International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 14(3/4), pages 306-323.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijatma:v:14:y:2014:i:3/4:p:306-323
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=65295
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Geels, Frank W. & Schot, Johan, 2007. "Typology of sociotechnical transition pathways," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 399-417, April.
    2. Liyi Zhang & Yi Zhang, 2013. "A Comparative Study of Environmental Impacts of Two Delivery Systems in the Business‐to‐Customer Book Retail Sector," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 17(3), pages 407-417, June.
    3. Geels, Frank W., 2002. "Technological transitions as evolutionary reconfiguration processes: a multi-level perspective and a case-study," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(8-9), pages 1257-1274, December.
    4. Schwanen, Tim & Banister, David & Anable, Jillian, 2011. "Scientific research about climate change mitigation in transport: A critical review," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 45(10), pages 993-1006.
    5. Peter Wells, 2012. "Converging transport policy, industrial policy and environmental policy: The implications for localities and social equity," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 27(7), pages 749-763, November.
    6. Jonathan Weinert & Chaktan Ma & Christopher Cherry, 2007. "The transition to electric bikes in China: history and key reasons for rapid growth," Transportation, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 301-318, May.
    7. J.H.R. van Duin & L.A. Tavasszy & H.J. Quak, 2013. "Towards E(lectric)- urban freight: first promising steps in the electric vehicle revolution," European Transport \ Trasporti Europei, ISTIEE, Institute for the Study of Transport within the European Economic Integration, issue 54, pages 1-9.
    8. Costain, Cindy & Ardron, Carolyn & Habib, Khandker Nurul, 2012. "Synopsis of users’ behaviour of a carsharing program: A case study in Toronto," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 421-434.
    9. Campbell, Amy R. & Ryley, Tim & Thring, Rob, 2012. "Identifying the early adopters of alternative fuel vehicles: A case study of Birmingham, United Kingdom," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(8), pages 1318-1327.
    10. Darren Scott & Kay Axhausen, 2006. "Household Mobility Tool Ownership: Modeling Interactions between Cars and Season Tickets," Transportation, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 311-328, July.
    11. Wells, Peter & Nieuwenhuis, Paul, 2012. "Transition failure: Understanding continuity in the automotive industry," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 79(9), pages 1681-1692.
    12. Dütschke, Elisabeth & Schneider, Uta & Peters, Anja, 2013. "Who will use electric vehicles?," Working Papers "Sustainability and Innovation" S6/2013, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI).
    13. Dargay, Joyce M., 2002. "Determinants of car ownership in rural and urban areas: a pseudo-panel analysis," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 351-366, September.
    14. Troy R. Hawkins & Bhawna Singh & Guillaume Majeau‐Bettez & Anders Hammer Strømman, 2013. "Comparative Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Conventional and Electric Vehicles," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 17(1), pages 53-64, February.
    15. Davis, Brian A. & Figliozzi, Miguel A., 2013. "A methodology to evaluate the competitiveness of electric delivery trucks," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 8-23.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Esmene Shukru & Leyshon Michael, 2019. "The Role of Rural Heterogeneity in Knowledge Mobilisation and Sociotechnical Transitions: Reflections from a Study on Electric Vehicles as an Alternative Technology for Cornwall, UK," European Countryside, Sciendo, vol. 11(4), pages 661-671, December.
    2. Ajanovic, Amela & Haas, Reinhard, 2016. "Dissemination of electric vehicles in urban areas: Major factors for success," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 115(P2), pages 1451-1458.
    3. Bursa, Bartosz & Mailer, Markus & Axhausen, Kay W., 2022. "Travel behavior on vacation: transport mode choice of tourists at destinations," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 234-261.
    4. Kester, Johannes & Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Noel, Lance & Zarazua de Rubens, Gerardo, 2020. "Rethinking the spatiality of Nordic electric vehicles and their popularity in urban environments: Moving beyond the city?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Spickermann, Alexander & Grienitz, Volker & von der Gracht, Heiko A., 2014. "Heading towards a multimodal city of the future?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 201-221.
    2. Wells, Peter & Lin, Xiao, 2015. "Spontaneous emergence versus technology management in sustainable mobility transitions: Electric bicycles in China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 371-383.
    3. Canitez, Fatih, 2019. "Pathways to sustainable urban mobility in developing megacities: A socio-technical transition perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 319-329.
    4. Valery Michaux, 2022. "Transformations in the automotive sector: complex change, deeper reconfiguration or dangerous disruption? [Les six mutations du secteur automobile : simple transformation, reconfiguration plus prof," Post-Print hal-03736166, HAL.
    5. Hirschhorn, Fabio & Paulsson, Alexander & Sørensen, Claus H. & Veeneman, Wijnand, 2019. "Public transport regimes and mobility as a service: Governance approaches in Amsterdam, Birmingham, and Helsinki," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 178-191.
    6. Liqiao Wang & Peter Wells, 2021. "Regime Confluence in Automobile Industry Transformation: Boundary Dissolution and Network Reintegration via CASE Vehicles," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-18, February.
    7. Nilsson, Måns & Nykvist, Björn, 2016. "Governing the electric vehicle transition – Near term interventions to support a green energy economy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 1360-1371.
    8. Berggren, Christian & Magnusson, Thomas & Sushandoyo, Dedy, 2015. "Transition pathways revisited: Established firms as multi-level actors in the heavy vehicle industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(5), pages 1017-1028.
    9. Jenkins, Kirsten & Sovacool, Benjamin K. & McCauley, Darren, 2018. "Humanizing sociotechnical transitions through energy justice: An ethical framework for global transformative change," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 66-74.
    10. Johan Schot & Laur Kanger, 2016. "Deep Transitions: Emergence, Acceleration, Stabilization and Directionality," SPRU Working Paper Series 2016-15, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    11. Nihit Goyal & Michael Howlett, 2018. "Technology and Instrument Constituencies as Agents of Innovation: Sustainability Transitions and the Governance of Urban Transport," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-14, May.
    12. Liqiao Wang & Peter Wells, 2020. "Automobilities after SARS-CoV-2: A Socio-Technical Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-14, July.
    13. Lakshminarayana Kompella, 2019. "Barriers To Radical Innovations As Stable Designs: Insights From An It Case Study," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(05), pages 1-31, June.
    14. Geels, Frank W., 2012. "A socio-technical analysis of low-carbon transitions: introducing the multi-level perspective into transport studies," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 471-482.
    15. Wesseling, J.H. & Lechtenböhmer, S. & Åhman, M. & Nilsson, L.J. & Worrell, E. & Coenen, L., 2017. "The transition of energy intensive processing industries towards deep decarbonization: Characteristics and implications for future research," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1303-1313.
    16. Thomas Magnusson & Viktor Werner, 2023. "Conceptualisations of incumbent firms in sustainability transitions: Insights from organisation theory and a systematic literature review," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 903-919, February.
    17. Bolton, Ronan & Hannon, Matthew, 2016. "Governing sustainability transitions through business model innovation: Towards a systems understanding," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(9), pages 1731-1742.
    18. Lin, Xiao & Wells, Peter & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2017. "Benign mobility? Electric bicycles, sustainable transport consumption behaviour and socio-technical transitions in Nanjing, China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 223-234.
    19. Wiegand, Julia, 2017. "Dezentrale Stromerzeugung als Chance zur Stärkung der Energie-Resilienz: Eine qualitative Analyse kommunaler Strategien im Raum Unna," Wuppertaler Studienarbeiten zur nachhaltigen Entwicklung, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, volume 11, number 11.
    20. Capellán-Pérez, Iñigo & Campos-Celador, Álvaro & Terés-Zubiaga, Jon, 2018. "Renewable Energy Cooperatives as an instrument towards the energy transition in Spain," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 215-229.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ids:ijatma:v:14:y:2014:i:3/4:p:306-323. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=2 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.