Novel or normal? Electric vehicles and the dialectic transition of Nordic automobility

Abstract

Over the last decade or more, the automobility literature has sought to observe and affect the dynamic tenacity of passenger vehicles. This paper takes up a recent call to actually study how private electric vehicles (EVs) are changing automobility. For this, it identifies four qualitative categories of automobility: general vehicle use, the car in daily life, vehicle symbolism and the effects of electrification. We study how these categories are affected by electric vehicles based on original data we gathered during a large empirical research project in the five Nordic countries, consisting of 227 expert interviews, 8 focus groups and 4,322 randomized survey respondents. We find a paradoxical relationship between EVs and automobility. Some aspects embed and strengthen carbased mobility and the current automobility regime, as EVs essentially offer a substitution technology. In other contexts, however, EVs challenge, threaten, and open up questions about automobility and germinate an awareness that it cannot continue as is. We conclude by arguing that the moment transport policy acknowledges this dualism and smartly links up to other developments in transport, like automation and connectivity, policy efforts can be designed to minimize drawbacks and emphasize strengths.

COVID-19 and transport: Findings from a world-wide expert survey

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Contextualizing the Covid-19 pandemic for a carbon-constrained world: Insights for sustainability transitions, energy justice, and research methodology

“…Kester et al recently refer to this as the “dialectic” nature of future sustainability transitions, given they can reinforce dominant practices as much as they can reform existing ones [30] . Even electric mobility, an innovation Kanda and colleagues noted may ultimately be less affected by the pandemic, has unclear and highly differentiated impacts on sustainability as noted in Table 1 .…”

“… EVs are co-opted and marginalized by transnational conglomerates with little desire for social change. Source: Authors modification from Kester et al [30] . …”

Electric Vehicles and Psychology

“…The European Environment Agency (EEA) [15] reported that 22.5% of all new cars sold in Norway in 2015 were electric. In [16], an analysis found that respondents were equal in percentage for gender and age: <25 (18.2%), 25…”

“…(2) The was a lack of regime patchworking initiatives; rather, initiatives mainly supported alternative fuels and PHEVs, opposing BEVs. For the cognitive dimension, it is important to explain the differences between Stockholm and Oslo, in which a greater prominence of BEVs is highlighted, since EVs are easily recognizable by their license plates [16]. (3) A lack of wide scenario policies: policy directions, visions and economic incentives confuse users, who do not know if private vehicles or collective ones will be supported in the coming years.…”