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Presently, existing electric car sharing platforms are based on a centralized architecture which are faced with inadequate trust and pricing issues as these platforms requires an intermediary to maintain users’ data and handle transactions between participants. Therefore, this article aims to develop a decentralized peer-to-peer electric car sharing prototype framework that offers trustable and cost transparency.

This study employs a systematic review and data were collected from the literature and existing technical report documents after which content analysis is carried out to identify current problems and state-of-the-art electric car sharing. A use case scenario was then presented to preliminarily validate and show how the developed prototype framework addresses the trust-lessness in electric car sharing via distributed ledger technologies (DLTs).

Findings from this study present a use case scenario that depicts how businesses can design and implement a distributed peer-to-peer electric car sharing platforms based on IOTA technology, smart contracts and IOTA eWallet. Main findings from this study unlock the tremendous potential of DLT to foster sustainable road transportation. By employing a token-based approach this study enables electric car sharing that promotes sustainable road transportation.

Practically the developed decentralized prototype framework provides improved cost transparency and fairness guarantees as it is not based on a centralized price management system. The DLT based decentralized prototype framework aids to orchestrate the incentivize monetization and rewarding mechanisms among participants that share their electric cars enabling them to collaborate towards lessening CO₂ emissions.

The findings advocate that electric vehicle sharing has become an essential component of sustainable road transportation by increasing electric car utilization and decreasing the number of vehicles on the road.

The key novelty of the article is introducing a decentralized prototype framework to be employed to develop an electric car sharing solution without a central control or governance, which improves cost transparency. As compared to prior centralized platforms, the prototype framework employs IOTA technology smart contracts and IOTA eWallet to improve mobility related services.

Electric cars represent the most energy efficient technical option available for passenger cars, compared to conventional combustion engine cars and vehicles based on fuel cells. However, this requires an efficient charging infrastructure and low carbon electricity production as well. Combustion engine cars which were converted to electric cars decreased lifecycle CO₂-equivalent emissions per passenger-km travelled down to one third of before, when powered by green electricity. However, through an analysis of 78 scientific reports published since 2010 for life cycle impacts from 18 aggregated impact categories, this chapter finds that the results are mixed. Taken together, however, the reduced environmental impacts of electric cars appear advantageous over combustion engine cars, with further room for improvement as impacts generated during the production phase are addressed. When it comes to battery components, Cobalt (Co) stands out as critical. Assessing the impact of electric cars on the local air quality, they are not ‘zero emission vehicles’. They emit fine dust due to tyre and brake abrasion and to dust resuspension from the street. These remaining emissions could be easily removed by adding an active filtration system to the undercarriage of electric vehicles. If electric cars are operated with electricity from fossil power plants nearby, the emissions of these plants need to be modelled with respect to possibly worsening the local air quality.

The popularity of electric and hybrid cars has been growing worldwide, and Portugal is no exception. Companies have been offered incentives as a way to promote the transition to more sustainable transportation systems and supply chains. Celebrities and influencers are endorsing the new technology, and consumer preferences are changing. However, in Portugal, there are still consumers with misconceptions about the autonomy, cost and reliability of electric cars, which may favour the choice of a conventional car, in a new car purchase decision-making process.

In this study, we analyse whether purchase intention in the near future of an electric car varies with a pro-environmental lifestyle, perceived symbolic value of the electric car, mobility patterns, age, and place of residence, (performance, social, financial and externalities) risk avoidance, consumer perceptions, knowledge about the cost, the autonomy and the existing infrastructures. A sample of 308 Portuguese consumers was collected with an online survey. Results from survey subsample analysis of 170 consumers who unequivocally claim that would opt for an electric vehicle or not show a positive relationship between the purchase intention of an electric car, the fuel cost increase, the proximity of convenient charging places and battery lifetime perception. It was also found that age, knowledge and perceived symbolic value of the electric car, in general, have a positive influence on consumers' choice of an electric car. A negative relationship was found between the purchase intention, social and financial risk avoidance, perceived symbolic value of the electric car in particular and the number of cars each family has.

There is a lot of talk about the electric car today, but these vehicles are not new. Indeed, thebeginning of the 20th century saw electricity and the automobile take hold in North American society, so that by 1910, the electric car was everywhere. Until the turn of the 1920s, a new era dawned for transportation in the USA, but without the electric car. The purpose of this study is to question Why did it happen.

This paper develops such a comparison, not of the cars themselves, through a detailed engineering analysis, but rather of the marketing of electric vehicles in the USA in 1910 and 2010, as it appeared in the marketing strategies of the manufacturers.

There are many technical and economic reasons for this, but not only; there are also commercial strategy reasons. The position of manufacturers, especially through advertising and the press, can tell us about this golden age of the electric car, what precipitated its fall, and its reappearance a century later.

It is a comparison of images, of how electric vehicles had been and are proposed to the public, through the exploration of mainly promotional material and newspaper articles.

Electric vehicles are often positioned as a politically easy option for low-carbon mobility, compared to other options, such as cycling, public transit, and walkable communities. This is difficult to assess confidently, however. The rate of adoption for electric vehicles that will be necessary over the next few decades to avoid the worst consequences of climate change will bring about new political struggles. This chapter uses a political-economic analysis to discuss what these struggles might look like. Using literature on the structure of automobility, along with evidence on the ways which electric vehicles disrupt the existing systems built around private car use, it discusses how a rapid transition to electric mobility will affect the material interests of various groups. One big impact will be on production, where the radical changes necessary to re-tool the auto industry to build electric vehicles will create major risks for car companies and their workers. A second impact will be on infrastructure, where the conversion of parking space into electric vehicle charging stations could arouse local political opposition, particularly in cities. Finally, electric vehicles might conflict with the cultural and symbolic lock-in of conventional vehicles, resulting not only in slower adoption but also the potential for active resistance against electric vehicle policies and infrastructure. Taken together, this implies that electric vehicles will not be a form of low-carbon mobility that is free of political struggle. Widespread electrification of private automobility could be aggressively opposed by powerful groups who have strong economic incentives to do so.

This chapter explains how electric driving has been transforming car mobility in The Netherlands since 1990, highlighting the role of a specific Dutch policy mix as direct factor, and the conditions through which this policy mix came about as indirect factors. The analysis is based on triangulation of findings from three methods: (1) discourse analysis of national newspapers and online blogs to understand the changing meanings of car mobility as well as changing stakeholder competences; (2) interview analysis with Dutch stakeholders to understand policy effects as well as their changing competences; and (3) analysis of relevant documents that provide the numbers of vehicles sold, implemented infrastructures and policy instruments. The study describes market changes in terms of ‘reconfiguring’ (entangled) practices of Dutch motorists, vehicle manufacturers and policy-makers, constituted by the (changing) relations between meanings, materialities, competences and policy incentives. The analysis finds a gradual reconfiguration of car mobility in three stages: The hegemony of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) mobility (1990–2008), Surge in Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) mobility (2009–2015), and Surge in full-electric mobility (2016–2020). The analysis shows that the specific Dutch policy incentives were critical to orchestrating the co-evolution of ICE-based and electric mobility towards low-carbon alternatives, that is, towards more electrification. The policy mix was adapted in three successive steps, in which inconsistencies towards electric mobility (e-mobility) were solved, entailing three distinct reconfiguration pathways in each period. The relatively strong policy incentives for e-mobility in The Netherlands can be explained by the absence of an established car industry as well as particular air quality challenges in cities (triggering local support for the provision of charging infrastructure). The conclusion includes policy recommendations for countries that seek to promote e-mobility, although further research should clarify how contextual differences require specific elements in the policy mix.

Electric cars have very little market share in developing countries despite their environmental benefits. Thus, governments have started promoting electric cars by providing financial incentives to consumers. The current article aims to examine the direct and indirect effects of government financial incentives on consumer electric car adoption in India.

The study followed a quantitative research method that employed a self-administered survey questionnaire. Structural Equation Modelling and Multi-Group Analysis were followed for data analysis.

The study revealed that financial incentives have an indirect effect on electric car adoption intention rather than a direct effect. In addition, financial incentives were found to have a direct effect on attitude and Perceived Behavioural Control (PBC). Attitude and PBC positively influenced consumer adoption intention.

The insights and implications from the present study would help policymakers and marketers to formulate better incentive policies and market strategies to increase consumer acceptance of electric cars in developing countries.

The study contributes to the literature by analysing the underlying mechanism that links government financial incentives to electric car adoption intention. This study also explored the direct effect of financial incentives on attitude and PBC, which are less investigated in electric vehicle literature. In addition, the present article also assessed the moderating role of age in electric car adoption, which has mixed evidence in the literature, and such studies are scarce in the Indian context.

The case deals with the unforeseen uncertainties faced by Reva, the first electric car of India, while entering the Indian market. The company was able to take up the challenge of making an energy efficient car. As a new product, Reva achieved operational success, developing an electric, low energy car. Its marketing strategies had limited consumer pull and had to be strengthened to gain consumer acceptance. The ecosystem worldwide is looking for support from governments on the concept and the infrastructure of this product category.

Purpose – Electric vehicles are very topical in developed countries. The breakthrough of new battery technologies and changing conditions driven by climate policy and growing fossil fuel prices has caused all major car manufacturing countries in the developed world to initiate R&D programmes to gain competitive advantage and to foster market diffusion of electric vehicles (EVs). This chapter looks at developments in China and compares them with observations from developed countries to draw conclusions about differences in their future paths of development.

Methodology – This chapter escribes the potentials and R&D approaches for different types of EVs in developing countries, using China as example, in comparison with developed countries. It looks at innovation strategies, policy framework and potential diffusion of EVs.

Findings – Market diffusion strategies in developed countries and China may differ, since, in the former manufacturers try to implement a premium strategy (i.e. offer high-price sophisticated EVs), while in the latter market, diffusion will probably appear at the lower end of vehicle types, i.e. via electric scooters and small urban vehicles. It is concluded that the market introduction strategies of EVs in developing countries and developed countries could converge because signs of downsizing of vehicles can be observed in the developed world, while upscaling from bikes and electric scooters can be expected for China, so that large-scale market introduction could occur via small city cars.

Implications for China – Instead of following the Western motorisation path, an option for China could be to develop a new one-stop-shop mobility concept integrating small EVs into such a concept.