EEVC European Electric Vehicle Congress 1 European Electric Vehicle Congress Brussels, Belgium, 3 rd – 5 th December 2014 Are electric vehicles better suited for multi-car households? Niklas Jakobsson 1 , Patrick Plötz 2 , Till Gnann 2 , Frances Sprei 1 , Sten Karlsson 1 1 Chalmers University of Technology, Energy and Environment, 412 96 Göteborg, Sweden, niklas.jakobsson@chalmers.se 2 Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, Breslauer Str. 48, 76139 Karlsruhe, Germany Abstract Electric vehicles could reduce CO2 emissions from the transport sector but their limited electric driving range diminishes their utility to users. Two-car households could be better suited for EV adoption since one vehicle could be used for longer trips. However, the number of days requiring adaptation and the differences between the cars in a multi-car household have not been systematically analysed yet. Here, we estimate the probability of daily driving above a fixed threshold for Swedish and German car driving data. We find the vehicles from multi-car-households to require less adaptation and be better suited for EV adoption which we confirm with an economic analysis. Keywords: BEV, mobility, market 1 Introduction Electric vehicles (EVs) could reduce global and local emissions from the transport sector [1]. Yet, the limited electric driving range of battery electric vehicles is technically and mentally a major hurdle for many consumers and impacts the EVs utility. The variation in distances travelled by one individual on different days of the year is important for the utility of EVs [2], [3]. In total, the limited range and long recharging times seem to impede EV adoption. On the other hand, EVs can easily be charged at home for most car owners, potentially yielding more comfort since extra visits to gas stations become unnecessary [4]. Multi-car households could be potential early adopters given the fact that there is always a long range vehicle available. In Norway, the country with the highest EV share per capita, 91% of the EV owners also have another car [5]. Furthermore, multi-car households have higher income [6], [7] and are thus more likely to afford the higher purchase price of EVs. On the other hand, higher income is correlated to higher annual mileage and could imply more trips that exceed the electric driving range of an EV. These trips would either have to be replaced by a conventional vehicle in the household or by renting another vehicle. In both cases the economic viability of the EV is reduced. Thus, multi-car households could be better suited for EV adoption but a systematic understanding of their driving behaviour with respect to the limited range of EVs and their role in market evolution does not yet exist. The line of argumentation for EVs in multi-car households builds on two assumptions. First, that the second car is commonly used for shorter, everyday trips compared to the first car or the car in a one-car household. Second, households may be able to shift between the cars to come around the range limitations of the EV. In this paper