Abstract:

Electric Freight Vehicles (EFVs) have a strong potential for urban freight transport and city logistics. Depending on the way electricity is produced, the deployment of EFVs could significantly reduce exhaust emissions and noise pollution in cities. The main strengths of the EFVs are related to low fuel costs, reduced noise, and lower environmental impact. The main weakness is economic, particularly high initial purchasing costs of EFVs, besides some technical and operational performance uncertainties. However, the market share of EFVs in commercial fleets is far below the potential. There is also a lack of knowledge on specific technical and organizational issues faced by EFV adopters, particularly those at an early stage of adoption. This paper aims to understand the factors that influence the adoption of EFVs in urban freight transport fleets in Turkey. The analysis is based on the literature review, and the feedback gathered from a workshop with relevant stakeholders as part of the activities realized under the EUFAL (Electric urban freight and logistics) project, realized under the ERA-NET Cofound Electric Mobility Europe. This study provides an overview of barriers and enablers of EFV adoption over social, economic, technical, and organizational aspects. The evaluation of workshop results shows that besides some persistent technical and operational issues, EFV adoption is limited by a clear lack of readily available and reliable information on factors affecting the EFV adoption decision.