Electric vehicles in commercial fleets: Potentials and challenges from the user perspective in Germany

Abstract

Electric vehicles (EVs) have been discussed as a promising alternative to conventional cars and as a potential solution for mitigating environmental problems caused by road transport. This study analyzes the potential of the commercial use of EVs and the factors influencing user acceptance in commercial fleets. Empirical data on the daily use of EVs was collected by conducting online surveys, interviews, and workshops with the users. This paper summarizes the insights on potential advances and challenges related to the use of the vehicles in commercial fleets from a user perspective. The results suggest that EVs meet the mobility needs of different commercial users, bringing reputational and environmental related benefits for the companies. Main challenges for the deployment of EVs are related rather to the periphery of the EVs (e.g., infrastructure, market characteristics, and lack of experts in related service sectors as well as psychological barriers). Finally, policy and management recommendations in different fields drawn from a synthesis of the data collected within the study are introduced in this paper.