Users and preferences: What really drives BEV adoption in Germany?

Abstract

Battery electric vehicle (BEV) adoption in Germany has not kept pace with the improvements in technology and infrastructure seen over recent years. While purchase prices have dropped, real-world ranges have increased and the charging network has expanded substantially, the BEV market share remains below the international average. This work investigates the role of consumer preferences in explaining this gap. Based on a discrete choice experiment with 1,510 German respondents, willingness-to-pay (WtP) values for BEV-specific attributes are derived; including: range, charging speed, battery lifetime, CO₂ footprint and bidirectional charging. The resulting WtP values are integrated as additional preference criteria into the agent-based vehicle technology scenario model VECTOR21. The analysis shows segment specific differences in purchase decision making: customers of small vehicles value range only at 9.7 €/km, whereas consumers of larger vehicles place a much higher value on range of up to 67.3 €/km. In the medium segment, the WtP for fast charging capabilities of 334 €/(km/min) shows that customers would be willing to pay an additional 5,000 Euro for upgrading from 180 kW to 300 kW maximum charging power. Sensitivity tests show that, under unchanged cost and lifespan assumptions, further increasing fast-charging capabilities to 446 kW can boost the BEV market potential by more than 50%.