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The relative importance of price and driving range on electric vehicle adoption: Los Angeles case study

Transportation volume 44, pages 353–373 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

Electric vehicles (EVs) are still a maturing technology. Barriers to their adoption include price and range anxiety. EV batteries are significant in determining both EV prices and costs. In this work, we focus on the impact of a high-capacity battery and EV rebates on an EV ecosystem. Using survey data from Los Angeles, California, we simulate different cases of battery costs and prices by means of an agent-based EV ecosystem model. We find that even in Los Angeles, a geographically spread out city, the price of EVs is a more significant barrier to adoption than EV range. In fact, even a quintupling of battery size at no additional costs improves EV adoption by only 5 %. Therefore, policy makers should focus more on affordability than range in promoting EV adoption.

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Notes

  1. The EV ecosystem model is also described in greater detail in our prior work (Adepetu et al. 2014).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada

    Adedamola Adepetu & Srinivasan Keshav

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  1. Adedamola Adepetu
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  2. Srinivasan Keshav
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Correspondence to Adedamola Adepetu.

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Adepetu, A., Keshav, S. The relative importance of price and driving range on electric vehicle adoption: Los Angeles case study. Transportation 44, 353–373 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-015-9641-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-015-9641-y

Keywords

  • Electric vehicles
  • Agent-based modeling
  • Electric vehicle adoption
  • Range anxiety