User experiences, public policy and OEM strategy towards electric vehicles (6730495)

This piece of research uses interviews with electric vehicle users to explore discrepancies between these users, vehicle manufacture strategies and government policies. Within the backdrop of a changing climate it is imperative that these mismatches are explored and documented so that strategy and policy can be focused in the most appropriate direction. This piece of work has found that policy and strategy have so far been useful in stimulating the uptake in electric vehicles but that changes need to be made to avert the risk of focusing in areas which will not achieve the best long term results. The key conclusions are in three areas. Firstly that the existing policies for public charging infrastructure focuses limited resources on slow charging solutions which have little use to EV users. Secondly the limited engagement with existing EV users and those at key decision points in the purchasing of new vehicles is a missed opportunity. Thirdly, that the rhetoric around EVs still focuses too much on the negative aspects of their use when attempting to encourage their take up.