A Distance Metric Based Approach for Analyzing, Assessing, and Strengthening EV Policy

In realizing seamless mass adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), the government plays a vital role by framing and implementing various EV related policies. These policies, if framed adequately, play a key role in achieving electrification of transportation in States. The literature review suggests that there is a pressing need to develop a unified method to analyze the EV policy of a State and determine its effectiveness as well as key interventions to strengthen EV policy. Therefore, to determine the quality and the effectiveness of EV policies, a quantitative analysis of EV policies by using the Hamming distance and the L1 norm (Manhattan distance) has been proposed in this paper. The policies are analyzed based on essential interventions to promote and strengthen electric mobility. This paper proposes an L1 norm-based EV policy analysis that assigns a remoteness score to indicate the status of the existing EV policy and its implementation when compared to the ideal EV policy. The paper proposes an approach that is based on three methods to improve the remoteness score: cost of intervention implementation, benefit of the intervention to the EV ecosystem, and the number of move/steps that are required to reduce the remoteness score. The proposed approach as applied to various Indian State EV policies has identified the States whose EV policies have lower remoteness score, thereby highlighting the States having relatively better EV policies. The analysis of these methods for optimal intervention selection when implemented for various State EV policies shows that the intervention implementation cost-based method is the most economical one. This paper formulates a linear optimization problem with the objective of intervention-implementation cost minimization to develop an economical roadmap to reduce the remoteness score. Recommendations for EV policy makers and stakeholders using an optimization based quantitative analysis of EV policies in India are also presented in this paper.

I. Introduction

The inexorable rise in global temperature and the diminishing reserves of fossil fuels have propelled the world's attention toward a pivotal solution for sustainable transportation. Various studies in the literature have shown that the energy consumption at the current or a higher rate of energy usage will increase the earth's temperature above 1.5 °C, which is the reversible temperature elevation limit [1]. Statistics show that the fossil fuel-based transportation sector makes a significant contribution to the rise in the global temperature. Therefore, transitioning to clean fuel-based transportation is promoted [2]. This transition requires support and encouragement to the stakeholders, whereas the governments are the appropriate entity to facilitate the transition in transport sector [3]. In addition, governments have to meet their national/regional/global commitments on sustainable energy and carbon emission reduction that compels them to prioritize the adoption of electric mobility. EV policies are the major step towards EV adoption, whereas the implementation of this policies decides the EV growth in the respective territory. EV policies support the major EV related sectors, such as EV manufacturing and distribution value chain, charging infrastructure providers, and aggregators in the EV market. The manufacturers of EVs and related components, the energy sector, and other service providers (charge point operator, e-roaming, platforms, etc.) are the major stakeholders in the EV market, while EV users are the demand-side stakeholders. In general, EV policies are grounded on public awareness, support to manufacturers, and demand creation which are considered the three important pillars of EV policies. These pillars increase the participation of supply and demand-side stakeholders, which accelerates the growth of the EV ecosystem. It also encourages existing and emerging investors to invest in the EV market.