Abstract:

Many researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders have explored and supported efforts to transition towards more sustainable forms of low-carbon mobility. This paper argues that a deeper understanding of the social and demographic perspectives of electric vehicles (in comparison to other modes of transportation, such as conventional cars) is required. The authors use a poll of over 5000 people from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden to conduct a comparative and mixed methods analysis of the demography of electric mobility and stated preferences for electric vehicles. The authors look at how gender effects preferences, as well as how education and occupation shape choices, as well as how ageing and household size influence choices. The authors intended to uncover the more complicated social dynamics that underpin how potential adopters think about and compute various aspects of traditional mobility, electric mobility, and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) systems by doing so. The results suggest that conventional (and electric) passenger vehicles satisfy complicated (and constantly evolving) preferences that cut across multiple dimensions. Electric vehicles can not only provide mobility services, they can also reinforce gender roles, signify levels of education and occupation, symbolize luxury or class, and reflect various elements of lifestyle and family domestication.  User preferences, values, knowledge, and experience may be just as important as design of technology or the state of infrastructure in why people may embrace, or reject, attempts at decarbonizing transport.