Growing Energy Efficiency in the Car Market (GREENCAR)
The GREENCAR project will explore consumer decision-making when buying vehicles and will trial new initiatives aimed at increasing the purchase of electric vehicles
Project Insights
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€347,434
Total Project Costs -
3 yr
Project Duration -
2019
Year Funded
Project Description
Many buyers are unclear about their energy costs and underestimate the cost savings of more efficient technologies resulting in under investment, this is known as the energy efficiency gap. If such information gaps are present, energy cost labelling could increase household demand for energy efficiency. This project will explore this hypothesis by conducting a national labelling randomised controlled trial of vehicles in conjunction with Hyundai Ireland. Two informational interventions are proposed: first, a five-year fuel/electricity cost label; second, a fuel/electricity cost app for use on tablets in showrooms which allows buyers to insert their exact mileage, and, where relevant, toll use. The project will explore whether energy cost information leads to a higher uptake of more fuel efficient vehicles. This project also incorporates a discrete choice experiment with randomised treatments to identify solutions to other possible barriers to consumer adoption of more fuel efficient vehicles, such as policy measures (for example, driving in bus lanes /half price tolls) and technical improvements (for example, increasing electric vehicle range).
Project Details
Total Project Cost: €347,434
Funding Agency: SEAI
Year Funded: 2019
Lead Organisation: Trinity College Dublin (TCD)
Collaborators: Hyundai Ireland, Competition & Consumer Protection Commission, TCD, CICERO (Norway), Behavioural Insights Team (UK), BC3 (Spain),RFF CMCC (Italy), University of St Gallen (Switzerland)