Abstract:

The European Union (EU) is taking steps to gradually reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and decarbonize the entire energy and automotive systems to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. As such, road transportation plays a fundamental role in this process. Internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles are to be slowly decommissioned as other powertrain systems arise for multiple reasons, from greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to urban air quality. Governments must act through policymaking intervention to change the technological and consumer landscapes. Electric vehicles (EVs) provide a significant opportunity to address this issue, and as such, the current work aims at assessing national-level policy intervention within the EU regarding the EV transition. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of the 27 EU Member States in terms of their current policymaking agenda for EV transition. This study employs the ELECTRE (ELimination Et Choix Traduisant la REalité - ELimination and Choice Expressing the REality) TRI-nC method to classify 27 EU Member States (MSs) regarding their governance in terms of EV technology promotion. Overall, financial incentives still have a big effect on EV deployment, since those countries with greater concern on this topic were generally better classified than the rest. Finally, charging infrastructures also play a critical role, either making or breaking EV deployment, leading to the worst classification of MSs with very few charging points per 100 thousand urban inhabitants.