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The effectiveness of decarbonizing the passenger transport sector through monetary incentives.

Authors :
Santarromana, Rudolph
Mendonça, Joana
Dias, André Martins
Source :
Transportation Research Part A: Policy & Practice. Aug2020, Vol. 138, p442-462. 21p.
Publication Year :
2020

Abstract

• This research analyzes the entire public charging demand of Portugal over a full year with more than 225,000 charging events. • A case study of the emissions impact of Portuguese public electric vehicle charging demonstrates additional emissions reductions can be achieved through pricing mechanisms. • Policies and incentives for vehicle acquisition across seven European countries are compared, replicating results of an earlier study with newer data. • Charging stations can remain profitable while charging more for carbon intense electricity. Passenger cars account for most road transportation emissions, and almost half of overall transport sector emissions in the EU. Countries in Europe have established policies to achieve emissions reductions in the transport sector by incentivizing the acquisition of fuel-efficient vehicles. In this paper, we perform a pair-wise comparison of common passenger vehicles sold in 2017, which implements newer data and more realistic assumptions than an earlier study. The pair-wise study compares an electric vehicle (EV) against a similar combustion vehicle to simulate a real market choice for consumers—a method commonly used to elicit preferences—and shows that fiscal incentives are effective at increasing EV acquisition. Acquiring EVs over conventional vehicles alone contributes to about a 60% reduction per kilometer of well-to-wheel emissions, based on average emissions of new EU vehicle fleets in 2017. A second mechanism at reducing emissions in the transport sector is through incentivizing consumer charging behavior to use less carbon intense electricity. The electricity used to charge EVs is variable throughout a day; therefore, we propose a dynamic pricing mechanism dependent on the carbon intensity of the electricity grid. We do this analysis through a case study for Portugal using the entire country's public charging demands from 2017. The responsiveness of the users to the variable price is reflected by the market price elasticity of demand, and the resulting reduction in demand from the surcharge is approximated. Our study finds that a surcharging mechanism based on the carbon intensity of the electric grid can yield an emissions reduction of 20 tonnes per year while still achieving profits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
09658564
Volume :
138
Database :
Academic Search Index
Journal :
Transportation Research Part A: Policy & Practice
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
144729472
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2020.06.020