Shared electric mobility Sample Clauses

Shared electric mobility. (and other alternative fuels) Taking into account the potential environmental benefits of carsharing, one can ask whether encouraging the use of electric or hybrid vehicles in carsharing schemes could have a multiplier effect in terms of these environmental benefits. According to Le Vine et al. (2014), several operators include a limited number of electric vehicles in their fleet, and at least two operators (Autolib’ in Paris, and car2go in Amsterdam) own a fleet with only electric powertrains. However, there is trade-off to take into consideration, as “electric vehicles are more complex to operate and overall less economic from the perspective of the carsharing service operator”. (Le Vine et al. 2014) On the other hand, with the current state of the technology, electric cars are probably better adapted for car sharing than for car ownership (Xxxxxxxx et al. 2015). Indeed, with battery ranges varying between 100 and 200 km, they are adequate for most carsharing trips (which tend to be short term and inner city). Moreover, carsharing operators could gain additional income from the provision of Vehicle-to- Grid (V2G) services - as explained by Xxxxxxxx et al. 2015, V2G “is the integration of electric vehicles into the electrical power grid to form a virtual power storage station. In a grid with a high proportion of renewable energy sources but fluctuating energy production, the load can be stabilised by the storage, feeding and charging of electricity from electric vehicles. It is possible e.g.: to use surplus power from renewable energy systems to substitute peak- loads.” Xxxxxxxx et al. 2015 also argue that the carsharing segment can serve as an advertisement for electric vehicles, as customers gain experience with the technology and range anxiety decreases. Here as well, there is a need for further research on the actual “social learning” process to understand how such propagation could take place. One of the challenges to overcome is that the need for a charging infrastructure partly offsets one of the big advantages of carsharing: the reduced need for parking. This may lead to some resistance from city authorities.24 In an online survey of car2go-users in Xxx, Xxxxxxxx and Xxxxxx (2015) have investigated whether offering electric cars in the scheme would affect the willingness to forgo a future car purchase. Their result indicated that the offer of electric cars does indeed affect this willingness, and 24 xxxx://xxx.xxxxxxxxxx.xxx/hardware/can-europes-b...