Moving a Taxi Sector to Become Electric: Characterizing Taxi Drivers Interested in Purchasing a Full Electric Vehicle

Abstract

Electrification of mobility exceeds personal transport to increasingly focus on particular segments such as city logistics and taxis. These commercial mobility segments have different motives to purchase a full electric vehicle and require a particular approach to incentivize and facilitate the transition towards electric mobility. A case where a municipality was successful in stimulating the transition to electric mobility is the taxi sector in the city of Amsterdam. Using results from a survey study (n = 300), this paper analyses the differences in characteristics between taxi drivers that either have or do not have interest in purchasing a full electric taxi vehicle. Results show a low intention across the sample to adopt a full electric vehicle and no statistically significant differences in demographics between the two groups. Differences were found between the level of acceptability of the covenant, the rated attractiveness of the incentives, the ratings of full electric vehicle attributes and the consultation of objective and social information sources. These results can be used by policy makers to develop new incentives that target specific topics currently influencing the interest in a full electric taxi vehicle.consumers is that, for taxi drivers, the vehicle itself is a prerequisite for all work-related activities while the switch to FEVs will be both stimulated by incentives as well as enforced through regulation.Insight into the adoption dynamics of taxi drivers is important for policy makers in order to optimize supporting and regulation schemes. In most cases, Dutch taxi fleets are not managed by the overarching taxi organization, who usually function as an administrative unit. Rather, vehicles are bought, operated and maintained by the individual taxi drivers themselves. The Amsterdam based taxi service is thus made up of thousands of individual entrepreneurs, all of whom are expected to switch to EVs in the upcoming years (the only exception is the Amsterdam based Taxi Electric, who operates a full electric taxi fleet and hires employees rather than entrepreneurs to operate vehicles. As the name indicates, Taxi Electric already operates an entire full electric taxi fleet. Since we focus on entrepreneurs and their individual decisions to purchase FEVs, data from Taxi Electric employees are not included in this paper). In this paper, we will discuss the results of a survey conducted in September 2017, centered around the perceptions of Amsterdam-based taxi drivers regarding (1) the covenant between the municipality of Amsterdam and the Amsterdam based taxi organizations, (2) the incentives and measures used by the municipality in line with the covenant, (3) the evaluations of FEV attributes, (4) the consultation of objective and social information sources and (5) the general interest in purchasing an FEV. This paper is structured as followed: first, a theoretical framework is described to outline the concepts used in the research. Second, sample, procedure, measure and analysis are described in the...

Framing Electric Mobility for Urban Sustainability in a Circular Economy Context: An Overview of the Literature

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Are We Satisfying the Right Conditions for the Mobility Transition? A Review and Evaluation of the Dutch Urban Mobility Policies

“…Likely to decrease (shorter sessions) No direct effect No direct effect Electricity use increases (short-term spike, kWh at location) Increases [62][63][64] No direct (local) effect…”

“…Grants were more effective than tax returns, and preferential treatments (access to lanes) as well as sufficient infrastructure affected preferences in this study. Fast chargers are one of the indicated needs for Amsterdam-based cab drivers [64]. From a global perspective, Lieven found that freeway chargers are also crucial for personal drivers (independent of driving distances).…”

“…Although both municipalities have a policy addressing fast chargers, the target numbers are still quite low compared to normal chargers. Fast chargers can increase acceptance and comfort for cab drivers [64], as well as personal drivers [62]. Urban fast chargers require less charging time, which could reduce occupancy rates and therefore reduce one of the main reasons not to get an EV: not enough charging points [78].…”

Parameters Influencing on Electric Vehicle Range

“…Many taxi companies have decided to purchase electric or hybrid vehicles [7][8][9][10][11]. An example for many cities can be found in Amsterdam (The Netherlands), where a taxi company has decided to replace its entire fleet of vehicles with electric ones by 2025 [12]. The largest number of e-taxis is in Beijing, China [13,14].…”