Abstract:

Electric mobility is often seen as an essential part of the solution, as en-route emissions immediately go down. This is especially true in urban environments, where technological solutions for electric transport are already available. This research aims to assess the broader impact of electric mobility in urban settlements, paying attention to the electrified ground and air transport. Considering electric cars and electric passenger drones, often referred to as UAM (urban air mobility), the authors use an urban spatial computable general equilibrium model to assess the welfare and environmental impacts of a transition to electric mobility. A numerical simulation shows that a transition from gasoline to electric cars yields significant emission reductions while leading to welfare losses due to tax-induced market distortions. Introducing UAM into a gasoline-car city leads to marginal overall welfare gains. While using UAM as a substitute for gasoline vehicles reduces CO2 emissions, using UAM as a substitute for electric vehicles increases emissions. Results for the UAM-only scenario show that welfare losses are even higher than for all other scenarios due to the associated high cost of transport. Emissions are lower than in a gasoline car city but significantly higher than in a city with electric cars.