Impacts of Electric Vehicle Adoption on Driver Behavior and Environmental Performance

The introduction of alternative vehicle technologies to respond to the transportation sector pressure regarding fossil fuel dependency poses questions regarding their impacts on travel and driving behavior but also on the environment. The results presented in this paper are part of a long-term study developed to evaluate user satisfaction and adaptation to electric vehicles (EVs), in terms of driving behavior, mobility, comfort, charging routines, and interaction with the charging infrastructure. Users' energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are also estimated. The data presented concerns information collected with interviews of eleven EV drivers and with on-board diaries, including km travelled, kWh charged, and number of trips per day. The information was gathered over a period of 5 months, and comprises a total of 1772 trips, 18,524 km travelled, a total electricity consumption of 3,252 kWh related to approximately 220 charges. Results indicate that the adoption of the EV impacted everyday routines in 36% of the participants and 73% observed changes in their driving style. In comparison to conventional internal combustion engine vehicles running on gasoline or diesel, EV reveals considerable reductions in both energy consumption and CO2 emissions in a Well-to-Wheel life cycle approach, with 1.30 MJ/km and 63 g/km, respectively.