Policy strategies for an emergent technology: lessons from the analysis of EV-policy in 8 North-European countries

This paper presents data from a comparative study of EV-policies in 8 different North-European countries, that maps out all of the policies of these countries (and a range of regions and cities) that target passenger vehicles (PHEV and BEV), chargers (home, private, public; level 1-3), and policies that target the emobility eco-system or supporting network, in time-period 2012-2014. The main findings are that 1) there is wide variance of policies put out by the different countries, 2) these policies are hardly part of a coherent policy-strategy, and 3) mainly address the introduction of e-mobility as an issue of "piling up" enough incentives to overcome early market problems (e.g. high costs, reticent customers, slow adaptation of regulation). Most countries we studied were able to meet short-term policy-ambitions, and some have even surpassed those ambitions; Netherlands and Norway for instance are ahead of their targets, both in numbers of vehicles and chargers. However, if we compare the currently applied policies to the medium- and longer term ambitions, these policies are hardly viable. Therefore, argue for alternative policy strategies that do not "pile up" incentives, but look at "mixes" of policies that instigate a self-reinforcing loop in the adoption to EV's.