Light a Spark! Addressing Barriers and Enablers to Increase Demand of Electric Vehicles in Southeast Sweden

Abstract: The Personal Transportation System safeguards peoples’ cultural understanding of freedom: to move individually without being dependent on others. However, the increasing number of private vehicles driven on fossil fuels contributes to unsustainability and one of the most urgent issues, climate change. The authors explored electric vehicles as an alternative to fossil fuel driven vehicles as a way of moving strategically towards sustainability in the Personal Transportation System. In order to increase demand of electric vehicles, barriers need to be overcome. The authors identified perceived barriers and enablers through literature review, interviews with automobile dealers and other stakeholders of the EV sector in Southeast Sweden, as well as through an electronic survey of individuals living in this region. The outcome of the thesis is a pilot strategy using behavior change tools from Community-Based Social Marketing in order to address the perceived barriers and enablers on the demand side of the electric vehicle market. With highly positive attitudes towards electric vehicles in Southeast Sweden, the strategy may be successful in the region; however, it needs to be combined with further measures on the supply side of the market which cannot be addressed with behavior change tools.