This paper aims to explore the potential of carsharing in replacing private car trips and reducing car ownership and how this is affected by its attributes. To that affect, a stated choice experiment is conducted and the data are analyzed by latent class models in order to incorporate preference heterogeneity. The results show that around 40% of car drivers indicated that they are willing to replace some of their private car trips by carsharing, and 20% indicated that they may forego a planned purchase or shed a current car if carsharing becomes available near to them. The results further suggest that people vary significantly with respect to these two stated intentions, and that a higher intention of trip replacement does not necessarily correspond to higher intention of reducing car ownership. Our results also imply that changing the system attributes does not have a substantial impact on people’s intention, which suggests that the decision to use carsharing are mainly determined by other factors. Furthermore, deploying electric vehicles in carsharing fleet is preferred to fossil-fuel cars by some segments of the population, while it has no negative impact for other segments.

It is often argued that successful market penetration of electric vehicles may not only rely on the characteristics of the technology but also on business models. However, empirical evidence for this is largely lacking. This study intends to fill this gap by assessing the impact of business models, in particular battery and vehicle leasing, on Electric Vehicle (EV) adoption. By conducting a stated choice experiment, we examine to what extent car drivers switch their choices between conventional and electric vehicles after business models become available. The results based on the discrete choice model suggest that leasing does not increase EV adoption at the aggregate level. However, a latent transition analysis shows that different groups with internally homogeneous preferences react differently to leasing options at the disaggregate level. The results indicate that 13% of the car drivers changed their preferences, albeit in different ways. Transition probabilities are particularly related to attitudes towards leasing and knowledge of EV. The results show that leasing is useful in facilitating EV adoption for certain groups, which can be identified by their individual characteristics. In addition to these substantial insights, this paper makes a contribution to the literature by demonstrating the potential of latent transition analysis in uncovering heterogeneity in behavioral changes induced by policy or strategy interventions, especially when changes can occur in opposite directions.

Successful market penetration of electric vehicles may not only rely on the characteristics of the technology but also on the business models available on the market. This study aims to assess and quantify consumer preferences for business models in the context of Electric Vehicle (EV) adoption. In particular, we explore the impact of attitudes on preferences and choices regarding business models. We examine three business models in the present study: battery leasing, vehicle leasing and mobility guarantee. We design a stated choice experiment to disentangle the effect of business models from other factors and estimate a hybrid choice model. According to the results, the preferences for business models depend on the vehicle type: for battery electric vehicle (BEV), vehicle leasing is the most preferred option and battery leasing is the least preferred, while for conventional cars (CV) and plug-in hybrids (PHEV) the traditional business model of full purchase remains more popular. The attitudes of pro-convenience, pro-ownership and pro-EV leasing are all significantly associated with the choice of business models. As for mobility guarantee, we do not find any significant effect on utility. Finally, we discuss the implications for business strategy and government policy derived from our results.