How do users adapt to a short-range battery electric vehicle in a two-car household? Results from a trial in Sweden

Abstract

We supplied 25 two-car households with a short-range battery electric vehicle (BEV) to study their adaptation to a BEV replacing one of their conventional cars. The data includes GPS-measured driving of the households’ two original cars for 2–3 months, and for the BEV and the remaining conventional car for 3–4 months. We performed interviews with the households before and after the BEV trial period. We can thus compare the change in measured driving patterns and the users’ experienced adaptation in relation to their measured driving adaptation. We find large heterogeneity in measured adaptation, with some users driving the BEV more than the replaced car and some less. Most users state a preference for using the BEV, but this is not always detectable in the GPS data. Similarly, expected issues with the range limitation from the GPS data do not predict satisfaction with the BEV from the qualitative data.

Keywords

• Battery electric vehicle
• User adaptation
• GPS
• Mixed methods