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Sustainability in Urban Transportation: Factors Impacted on Alternative Fuel Vehicle Usage

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Transportation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2022) | Viewed by 3072

Special Issue Editor

Urban Planning Program, School of Public Affairs and Administration, University of Kansas, Snow Hall 217,1460 Jayhawk Blvd. Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
Interests: sustainability in transport, electric and alternative-fuel vehicles, connected and autonomous vehicles, mobility-as-a-service
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As part of the economic and policy response to the Great Recession of 2007-2008, alternative fueled vehicles (AFVs), which are largely electric vehicles (EVs), were pushed into the spotlight of surface transportation. Facilitated by state policies investing in research and development in EV, battery, and supply chain technology, increasing emissions and mileage standards, and incentives for consumers to purchase new EV offerings from manufacturers, there are now over 7.5 million EVs of some form driving on roads worldwide. Their rate of uptake has been quicker than conventional hybrids, in comparison to their date of deployment, and electric powertrains appear to be a central part of the future of transportation for years to come.

Alternative-fueled vehicles promise to address several key issues in the sustainability of transportation, including reliance on petroleum and emissions contributing to global climate change and local urban air quality. Much of the research on EVs and other AFVs relies on stated preference and examples from places and households that were already more likely to adopt them. While these are obviously essential contributions, EVs have now been commercially available for over a decade, and may have reached a large enough market penetration that research can begin to empirically explore some of their impacts.

This Special Issue calls for research on factors that have been impacted by electric vehicle usage. Key to the promise of AFVs was reductions in urban air pollution, reductions in gasoline consumption, but also increased electricity demand, and impacts on the energy grid. Have the impacts, both positive and negative, materialized? How and why do these vary by place? How has the general impression of AFVs changed over time, and who has adopted them? How have they changed over time? And what do these things mean for the sustainability of transportation? These are just some of a wealth of potential research questions suiting this call.

Over the last decade plus, we have seen some extraordinary developments in surface transportation, with alternative fueled vehicles, most specifically forms of electricity, taking hold as a powertrain option for consumers to consider in choosing a vehicle. This Special Issue calls for research looking at the impacts of the development and adoption of electric vehicles for transportation and sustainability. It seeks studies reporting on various aspects of factors impacted by the proliferation of electric (or any alternative-fueled) vehicles in passenger or commercial transportation, and in any sector related to transportation.

Dr. Bradley W. Lane
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • electric vehicles
  • sustainability
  • energy use
  • impacts
  • adoption
  • travel behavior
  • mode choice
  • alternative fuels

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 1564 KiB  
Article
Challenges and Opportunities for Future BEVs Adoption in Croatia
by Marko Emanović, Martina Jakara and Danijela Barić
Sustainability 2022, 14(13), 8080; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14138080 - 01 Jul 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2327
Abstract
Electric vehicles (EVs) represent a revolution and the beginning of a new era in the development of the automotive industry. This study investigates the advantages and disadvantages of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and the possibilities of their better future adoption in the Republic [...] Read more.
Electric vehicles (EVs) represent a revolution and the beginning of a new era in the development of the automotive industry. This study investigates the advantages and disadvantages of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and the possibilities of their better future adoption in the Republic of Croatia. Based on an in-depth analysis of the current status of BEVs in Croatia, the study shows that the number of passenger BEVs and charging stations are constantly increasing. However, despite the many advantages of BEVs, such as a reduction in urban air pollution, reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, noise-free, less dependence on oil as a fuel, etc., there also are certain disadvantages, such as a limited range of vehicles, the correlation with an insufficient number of charging stations on the transport network as a whole, storage of lithium-ion batteries, maintenance of electric vehicles, high prices, and the safety of BEVs in the road traffic system. The practical implications of BEVs’ positive and negative effects and challenges for increasing their implementation in Croatia are discussed. The results and findings from this research could present a base for policymakers and decisionmakers to formulate policies and strategies to improve the opportunities for the adoption of BEVs in Croatia. Full article
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