Energizing the Future: Interplay of Technology, Economics, and Policy for Transitioning to Electric Vehicles

Dear Colleagues,

The electrification of transportation is a key pillar of decarbonization strategies at any jurisdictional level, including international frameworks (EU) and at national, provincial/state, county, and city levels. Ambitious targets have been set to furnish the policy leadership that provides directional guidance and sets the pace at which the transition to clean transportation must occur in order to meet set targets. This required pace of new technology adoption is unprecedented in the energy field in general, as well as for on-road transportation in particular. 

The adoption of electric vehicles not only requires competitive vehicle products that are affordable, reliable, and provide similar, if not better transportation services, it also requires a charging infrastructure and pricing of electricity that deliver transportation solutions comparable to the internal combustion engine alternative. 

Significant progress has been made since the early EV introduction of the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf in the US in 2010/2011. However, much more market adoption at an accelerated pace must occur for light-duty vehicles and, for the mid- and heavy-duty vehicle market segments, market adoption needs to be initiated with a few commercially available EV models.

This Special Issue is designed to review the history of EV technology and its market adoption to then discuss how we may transition from the current state of technology, industry, and policy frameworks to achieve the necessary progress by the 2030 to 2050 period, so that we can meet ambitious decarbonization targets for on-road transportation. Contributions are sought that describe and discuss the technological, regulatory/institutional, and human behavioral barriers and inertia that need to be overcome to accelerate the transition to clean transportation. In particular, contributions and discussions on the following issues and challenges are sought:

1. The historic context of the market adoption of transportation technology, and the transition from horses to automobiles, airplanes, and other modes of transportation.
2. What were the underlying key drivers for past technological transitions in transportation?
3. What are the current characteristics of technological, institutional, and human behavioral inertia that need to be addressed in order to accelerate the transition to transportation electrification?
4. What are potential solution pathways to enable the acceleration of transportation electrification, and how much may they differ across countries or states/provinces?
5. Are there potential leveraging opportunities in other energy markets or economic sectors (buildings, industry, electricity supply) that could be utilized to create integrated solutions?
6. Techno-economic–behavioral science approaches to policy design and infrastructure planning processes.

Dr. Michael CW Kintner-Meyer
Guest Editor

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• clean transportation
• electric vehicles
• technology barrier
• institutional barrier
• regulatory barrier
• human behavior
• market inertia
• policy
• policy design
• electric infrastructure
• charging infrastructure
• planning processes
• acceleration of market adoption
• decarbonization strategies
• electric rates for EVs