Sharing mobility has led to a reduction of car ownership with consequent decrease in impacts from a multiple economic, social and environmental perspective. One way of promoting sustainable mobility is to establish the use of electric vehicles (EVs), but insufficient knowledge and high uncertainty towards EV technology can represent a barrier to the acceptance of these new forms of mobility. Under-thirty are recognized as a prospective customer group for car sharing services, very receptive to technological innovation.
Based on this premise, the study proposed a double-structured methodological framework to investigate university student user profile defining the heterogeneous preferences regarding a mix of attributes of the service design and to assess the impact of car-sharing experience on acceptance of EVs. Preferences for specific service attributes have been explored (e.g. rate, different power systems) and possible predictors have been tested (e.g. car ownership, neighborhood walkability, ecological awareness) by using a quantitative analysis with car-sharing users and non-users.
This methodology has been implemented in the city of Enna (Italy), where university population constitute a high percentage of residents and a recent station-based car sharing service has been implemented. Besides the demographics characteristics, the students’ demand of mobility and acceptance of EVs have been investigated through a survey data analysis, considering several operational attributes and context-related variables in applying Likert scale.
The results show that experience in using, EV vehicles leads to higher acceptance of this new technology. Furthermore, it emerged a correlation between gender distribution and operating and infrastructural characteristics of the service, like the presence of reserved parking with charging stations.
This study lays the basis for more in-depth research for service design and reconversion through the introduction of shared EVs, improving their use both for home-school and home-leisure trips and discouraging the use of the private vehicle.