Title: Pricing and commercialisation of electric mobility - dealing with high market uncertainty

Authors: Heike Proff; Thomas M. Fojcik

Addresses: Chair of General Business Administration and International Automotive Management, University of Duisburg-Essen, Lotharstraße 1, D-47057 Duisburg, Germany ' Chair of General Business Administration and International Automotive Management, University of Duisburg-Essen, Lotharstraße 1, D-47057 Duisburg, Germany

Abstract: There is still a mismatch between supply and demand in electric vehicles. To achieve a better fit, the pricing and commercialisation of electric vehicles therefore have to be improved. This is only possible if the decision on the design of the new products is made on a sounder basis. However, this is particularly difficult in the case of really new products with which the customer is not yet familiar. This paper examines that better information about customers can be acquired by providing them with a better offering of information which has been prepared in a variety of forms (new method of interdependent 'information acceleration') and how management decisions can be improved as a result. A test studio was set up in the form of a Car Clinic for the example of a future electric vehicle. The results reveal that information acceleration in a test studio can improve the traditional approaches of linear acquisition of information about customers and therefore estimation of adequate pricing and commercialisation in an early decision-making phase and can have a positive influence on decision-making behaviour under uncertainty.

Keywords: pricing; commercialisation; market uncertainty; really new products; RNP; electric mobility; car clinic; electric vehicles; product design; information acceleration; decision making.

DOI: 10.1504/IJATM.2016.076446

International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management, 2016 Vol.16 No.1, pp.30 - 54

Received: 05 Feb 2015
Accepted: 02 Oct 2015
Published online: 09 May 2016 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article