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Income, political affiliation, urbanism and geography in stated preferences for electric vehicles (EVs) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technologies in Northern Europe
Version 2 2023-06-12, 09:10
Version 1 2023-06-09, 18:27
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-12, 09:10 authored by Benjamin SovacoolBenjamin Sovacool, Johannes Kester, Lance Noel, Gerardo Zarazua de RubensDespite a potentially revolutionary shift towards electric mobility in the passenger vehicle market, the academic and policymaking communities remain wedded to a techno-economic paradigm that may not fully appreciate deeper social and geographic elements of a transition to electric vehicles. In this paper, based primarily on bivariate statistical analysis as well as a hierarchical regression analysis of a survey distributed to more than 5,000 respondents across Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, we analyze how perceptions and attitudes towards electric vehicles and vehicle-to-grid technologies differ by income, political affiliation, and geography. Although our findings confirm EV ownership and mobility patterns in general are related to income—those with higher incomes both own more EVs and drive more generally—they also confirm that interest in EVs is not so strongly related. Lower income groups seem to ask less from their cars, thus potentially opening up a market for cheaper low-range alternates. Political orientation is correlated to car and EV ownership, with those on the “left” more interested yet those on the “right” more able and willing to buy expensive cars. Moreover, we see variation in preferences across urban and rural subcategories, and our findings strongly suggest that EVs need not be promoted only for city or suburban areas. When controlling for variables, a multilevel regression analysis does not change the overall thrust of these associations.
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Publication status
- Published
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- Published version
Journal
Journal of Transport GeographyISSN
0966-6923Publisher
ElsevierExternal DOI
Volume
78Page range
214-229Department affiliated with
- SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2019-07-25First Open Access (FOA) Date
2019-07-25First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2019-07-25Usage metrics
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