Title: Analysing barriers to the adoption of electric freight vehicles in China: perspectives from industry stakeholders

Authors: Yongling Gao; Liu Yang; Yan Liu

Addresses: Business School, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China ' Business School, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, China ' Business School, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China

Abstract: The use of electric freight vehicles (EFVs) in fleets can provide a promising solution for reducing pipeline emissions. Due to a number of barriers, the development of EFVs in China is far below its potential. Therefore, this paper identifies 14 common obstacles to EFV adoption from the perspectives of industry stakeholders, including EFV manufacturers, fleet operators, and charging infrastructure operators. Then, we propose an iterative process of the fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) technique to shortlist barriers and investigate their importance and cause-effect relationships. The results show that demand uncertainty (DU), inadequate cost advantages (CA), limited carrying capacities (CC), and the lack of suitable application scenarios (SAS) are critical barriers. The most significant causal barriers include the lack of mature battery technology (BT), lack of suitable places for charging facilities (PI), insufficient traffic incentives (TI), and long charging times (CT). Policy measures to mitigate these barriers are also discussed.

Keywords: electric vehicles; EVs; city logistics; barrier; DEMATEL; policy; China.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTL.2024.143141

International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics, 2024 Vol.19 No.2/3, pp.297 - 327

Received: 05 Nov 2022
Accepted: 13 Mar 2023
Published online: 04 Dec 2024 *

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