Work

The impact of electric cars on travel behaviour segments: Insights from Norway

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Clustering travellers based on their characteristics and attitudes allows to design more tailored and effective transport policies. Past studies often associated higher environmental awareness with lower car use, assuming that groups showing a mismatch experience a dissonance. However, the development of electric cars (EVs) could have introduced a disruption in this assumption. This hypothesis is tested a Latent Class Analysis of travel behaviour and attitude data of commuters from Nord-Jæren in Norway for 2019 (n = 741) was performed. Three distinct latent classes of commuters have been identified, two consisting of dedicated car users and one of multimodal travellers. The main difference between the first two groups is whether they use an EV. This study suggests that in contexts with high EV deployment, higher environmental awareness should not necessarily be associated with lower car use or higher use of alternative options, and neither should this phenomenon be considered a dissonance.

Source: Transportation Research Part D Transport and Environment

DOI: 10.1016/j.trd.2025.104703

Author: Ioannis Kosmidis

Institution: University of Stavanger

Language: English

Topic: Electric Vehicles and Infrastructure

Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Sustainable cities and communities, Climate action

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,450