The thesis “Predictors of Alternative Vehicle Adoption in B2B Markets” supervised by ESTT members was completed. Here is the abstract:

The increasing uptake of alternatively powered vehicles – such as electric vehicles (EV), natural gas vehicles (CNG & LNG vehicles) and hydrogen vehicles (H 2 V) – could have great impact on the reduction of the transport sectors’ contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions. We carried out in-depth expert interviews with representatives of Austrian fleet operating companies and reviewed grey literature to identify influential factors and predictors of businesses’ alternative vehicle adoption. We found that there was a large number of influential factors to AV adoption such as: driving patterns & transportation needs, vehicle availability and dependency on suppliers, residual value & secondary markets, maintenance & repair, efficiency of technology, drivers’ perceptions, strategic objectives, sustainability, marketing & company image, and infrastructure. As these individual factors tend to often be very interdependent, it was hard to determine the most important or least important contributor to AV adoption. Yet, from these factors and the actual AV adoption rates we saw among our interviewed companies we were able to derive what we found to be the most predictive factors of commercial AV adoption: cost & cost uncertainty, strategic objectives, and leadership executives’ support.