University of California Institute of Transportation Studies

This project provides a literature review of research on zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) which includes fuel cell vehicles, battery electric vehicles, and plug-on hybrid electric vehicles, the latter are referred to as plug-in electric vehicles (PEV). In the review we focus on PEVs due to a lack of literature on fuel cell vehicles. We consider buyer and consumer perceptions of PEVs including perceived barriers to PEV adoption, consumer knowledge of PEVs, issues associated with incentives, and issues associated with infrastructure. The aim is to understand potential barriers to higher PEV sales and future research needs relating to PEV adoption. The PEV market shows many signs of becoming more robust. This includes PEV buyer demographics shifting toward the demographics of buyers of all types of new cars and improvements in PEV technology. Some challenges may remain, however. These include understanding the needs of households without home charging, engaging female car buyers in PEVs, engaging more of the general population in the PEV transition, substantially reducing PEV purchase prices, and incentive discontinuities potentially impacting adoption. Finally, disparities in rebate allocation, infrastructure deployment, and PEV sales indicate the transition is not yet equitable. This may require specific policy actions to address.