Policy incentives for market introduction of electric vehicles

INTRODUCTION This chapter outlines and analyses the policy options available to stimulate consumers into buying plug-in electric vehicles (PEV or EV), i.e., mainly battery electric vehicles (BEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV). As seen in previous chapters, PEVs offer the opportunity to mitigate some of the sustainability issues of today’s transportation system: propulsion energy supply, energy efficiency, environmental concerns such as emissions of regulated pollutants and greenhouse gases and noise (see Chapters 5 and 6). Thus, if the possible rebound effect1 due to lower driving costs is curbed, there are societal gains of shifting towards electric mobility. PEVs still face a number of market disadvantages compared to the incumbent technology: there are knowledge gaps for the consumers, PEVs provide a slightly different service (e.g., range limitations) and they are still more expensive (see Chapters 11, 12 and 14 for further discussions on performance dimensions, consumer attitudes and alternative business models).