scholarly journals Prioritizing the Chicken or Egg? Electric Vehicle Purchase and Charging Infrastructure Subsidies in Germany

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 185-198
Author(s):  
Roland Zink ◽  
Javier Valdes ◽  
Jane Wuth

To meet current targets for greenhouse gas emissions in Europe, emissions, especially those originating from the road transport sector, need to be reduced. Plans are to achieve this goal by substituting fossil fuel vehicles with electric vehicles (EVs). This article first discusses conceptually the impact of an increasing share of EVs on the electricity grid and suitable locations for charging stations with examples from a Case Study in Lower Bavaria. Secondly, the impact of purchase subsidies on EV purchases in Germany, a high-income country characterized by an important automotive industry and an increasing share of private vehicles is examined. To achieve this, yearly information on EV purchases were analyzed by applying the Synthetic Control Method. Combining data from different sources including the European Alternative Fuels Observatory, Eurostat, and the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association, an overall picture was developed. Results indicate a difference between private, semi-public, and public charging infrastructures. Its spatial distribution does not correspond to a specific development strategy. Moreover, EV subsidies have a limited effect in Germany when controlling for market size. Limiting the discussion to a trade-off between subsidizing infrastructures or EV purchases obviates the multidimensionality of the problem as neither of them may be sufficient to accelerate the transition per se. Furthermore, if electricity provided for EVs comes mainly from fossil carriers, the changes in the road transport sector will not yield the expected emission reductions. The transition towards renewables is directly intertwined with the effects of EVs on emission reductions in the road transport sector.

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 614-640

The problem of reducing CO2 emissions from transport, a major contributor to the greenhouse effect, has become a growing concern for the scientific community and various international committees monitoring climate change. Energy savings in the transport sector are a key factor towards rational management of oil reserves, while new trends in the automotive market have already been established, supported by research on efficient and environmentally-friendly technologies and alternative fuels to face fossil fuel dependency. The road transport sector is an important part for most developed economies but also a major source of pollutant emissions. In this framework, this paper focuses on transport emissions along the main road axis in Greece, connecting the country’s two largest urban areas, during the years 2008-2014, a period of prolonged recession. Based on traffic data collected at the toll stations along the highway, greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions were calculated using the COPERT4 emission estimation tool. According to the results, a sharp fall in emissions is observed largely due to traffic volume reductions, but also due to a prevailing trend for larger displacement vehicles and technologically improved vehicles with better environmental standards.


2020 ◽  
Vol 99 ◽  
pp. 345-361
Author(s):  
Ana Carolina Rodrigues Teixeira ◽  
Pedro Gerber Machado ◽  
Raquel Rocha Borges ◽  
Dominique Mouette

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-16
Author(s):  
Anthony David Owen ◽  
Jacqueline Yujia Tao

This paper assesses the role that both vehicle emissions and fuel standards can play in moderating the projected increase in emission of pollutants from the road transport sector of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries by adopting international best practice as it currently stands. It concludes that much could be done within ASEAN to align with international best practice in terms of vehicle emission regulations in the transport sector. In addition, exploring alternative fuels such as natural gas, ethanol, and biodiesel could also offer substantial benefits in reducing air pollutants and emissions in the short term as member countries develop their refining capabilities to produce ultra-low sulphur fuel. Until then, it is likely that vehicle emission regulations may be held back at the Euro III (3) level. Despite that limitation, improving existing motorcycle emission regulations could provide abatement possibilities, while also improving local ambient conditions. Recognizing that international best practice is limited for motorcycle emission regulations, ASEAN member countries could play a key role in drafting and possibly shaping such emission standards.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 285-292
Author(s):  
Viktoriia Harkava ◽  
Olena Pylypenko ◽  
Oleksandr Haisha ◽  
Armen Aramyan ◽  
Volodymyr Kairov

The purpose of the research is as follows: analysis of the current state of functioning of the road transport sector in Eastern Europe and identification of key problems and trends in its development. Research methods: Methods of grouping, comparison and generalization, сorrelation analysis have been used to identify the dynamics of the main indicators of road transport in Eastern Europe. The method of correlation-regression analysis has been applied to determine the impact of increasing the length of roads on the turnover of the road freight transport and the number of employed population in this area. Results. It has been found that the increase in the employed population by 96% and increase in revenues from transportation and storage of goods, postal and courier services (turnover of the road freight transport - in the original language) in the field of road transport by 82% is explained by the change in transport infrastructure capacity by increasing length of highways.    


2021 ◽  
Vol 238 ◽  
pp. 08002
Author(s):  
David Chiaramonti ◽  
Giacomo Talluri

Introducing sustainable fuels in the different transport fields in the EU is a very challenging goal, but also a clear priority in the EU decarbonization strategy. In fact, the transport sector is extremely rigid and regulated, with consolidated norms and standards and well-defined economics. Adding more oxygenated components to the fuel mix is also limited by the so-called blend-wall: thus, the share of renewable drop-in hydrocarbons has been recently growing worldwide and in the European Union. However, as a large part of these relates to lipids, the supply of sustainable feedstock has become the major critical element of the value chain. Fast-growing demand from new sectors as Aviation also emerged, that together with Heavy Duty and Maritime represent the focus of the EC strategy, complementary to the electrification of the road transport, passenger cars and light duty vehicles. Introducing innovative processes at full commercial scale requires to overcome the Mountain of Death of processes, where the bankability of not yet demonstrated technologies is the core problem. This work addresses the impact of the EU policy scenario, depicting the status of the different process and technologies, both Bio-based and Recycled Carbon, on the Mountain of Death.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-52
Author(s):  
Łukasz Marzantowicz

Abstract The goal of this article is to determine the relation between the price of fuel and the profitability of the company. For this purpose, the article defines the profitability of transport enterprises and points the source of the impact of changes in fuel prices on the profitability of companies in the road transport sector. The case of the ABC transport company shows the relationship between the costs incurred for the purchase of fuel and the cost of transport activities. To test the theoretical assumptions, case study method was used.


2021 ◽  
pp. 2631309X2110178
Author(s):  
Eduardo Carvalho Nepomuceno Alencar ◽  
Bryant Jackson-Green

In 2014, the most prominent anti-corruption investigation in Latin America called Lava Jato, exposed a Brazilian corruption scheme with reverberations in 61 countries, resulting in legal judgments for nearly 5 billion USD in reimbursements thus far. This article applies the synthetic control method on data from 135 countries (2002–2018) to test the hypothesis that Lava Jato impacts the Worldwide Governance Indicators in Brazil. The findings reveal that Lava Jato negatively affects control of corruption, the rule of law, and regulatory quality. There are signs of possible improvement in at least the corruption and the rule of law measures. This paper brings value to the criminological body of literature, notably lacking in the Global South.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-228
Author(s):  
Layla Parast ◽  
Priscillia Hunt ◽  
Beth Ann Griffin ◽  
David Powell

AbstractIn some applications, researchers using the synthetic control method (SCM) to evaluate the effect of a policy may struggle to determine whether they have identified a “good match” between the control group and treated group. In this paper, we demonstrate the utility of the mean and maximum Absolute Standardized Mean Difference (ASMD) as a test of balance between a synthetic control unit and treated unit, and provide guidance on what constitutes a poor fit when using a synthetic control. We explore and compare other potential metrics using a simulation study. We provide an application of our proposed balance metric to the 2013 Los Angeles (LA) Firearm Study [9]. Using Uniform Crime Report data, we apply the SCM to obtain a counterfactual for the LA firearm-related crime rate based on a weighted combination of control units in a donor pool of cities. We use this counterfactual to estimate the effect of the LA Firearm Study intervention and explore the impact of changing the donor pool and pre-intervention duration period on resulting matches and estimated effects. We demonstrate how decision-making about the quality of a synthetic control can be improved by using ASMD. The mean and max ASMD clearly differentiate between poor matches and good matches. Researchers need better guidance on what is a meaningful imbalance between synthetic control and treated groups. In addition to the use of gap plots, the proposed balance metric can provide an objective way of determining fit.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1538
Author(s):  
Felipe Andrade Torres ◽  
Omid Doustdar ◽  
Jose Martin Herreros ◽  
Runzhao Li ◽  
Robert Poku ◽  
...  

The worldwide consumption of fossil hydrocarbons in the road transport sector in 2020 corresponded to roughly half of the overall consumption. However, biofuels have been discreetly contributing to mitigate gaseous emissions and participating in sustainable development, and thus leading to the extending of the commercial utilization of internal combustion engines. In this scenario, the present work aims at exploring the effects of alternative fuels containing a blend of 15% ethanol and 35% biodiesel with a 50% fossil diesel (E15D50B35) or 50% Fischer–Tropsch (F-T) diesel (E15FTD50B35) on the engine combustion, exhaust emissions (CO, HC, and NOx), particulate emissions characteristics as well as the performance of an aftertreatment system of a common rail diesel engine. It was found that one of the blends (E15FTD50B35) showed more than 30% reduction in PM concentration number, more than 25% reduction in mean particle size, and more than 85% reduction in total PM mass with respect to conventional diesel fuel. Additionally, it was found that the E15FTD50B35 blend reduces gaseous emissions of total hydrocarbons (THC) by more than 25% and NO by 3.8%. The oxidation catalyst was effective in carbonaceous emissions reduction, despite the catalyst light-off being slightly delayed in comparison to diesel fuel blends.


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