Work

Communicating car costs: Results from stated and revealed preference experiments

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: While many studies find that consumers consistently undervalue fuel costs when making a new car purchase, whether this information failure can be corrected through an intervention remains unclear. This paper combines the results of two nationwide experiments conducted in the Republic of Ireland − an online discrete choice experiment and a showroom randomized controlled trial which test the provision of energy cost and CO 2 information on car choices. Findings from the online experiment suggest that providing monetary energy cost information, particularly when it is framed over longer time horizons increases the probabilty of selecting a battery electric vehicle (BEV). Field trial findings however do not show an effect of information provision at the point of vehicle sale. This highlights the difficutly in influencing real-world purchases, and the importance of source and timing in information provision.

Source: Transportation Research Part D Transport and Environment

DOI: 10.1016/j.trd.2025.104921

Authors: Ivan Petrov, James Carroll, Eleanor Denny

Institutions: Trinity College Dublin, Central Bank of Ireland

Language: English

Topic: Electric Vehicles and Infrastructure

Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Affordable and clean energy, Climate action

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,450