The next car generation: barriers and opportunities. A Methodological basis for the analysis of the transition towards a more environmentally car fleet.

This project will be elaborated by means of 5 studies. The first study will provide an insight in the car purchase decision by mapping the attributes which play a role in the car purchase decision. Furthermore, the willingness for considering an environmentally friendly vehicle will be investigated. The aim of this study is to come 18 to a unified approach which allows the prediction of environmentally friendly car purchase behaviour. The second study will analyse the current travel behaviour of car users and, as a special case study, investigate the practical feasibility of including the use of electric cars in their daily travel decisions or within the intermodal transport chain. In the third study, the cost-efficiency of conventional fossil fuel versus alternative vehicle technologies (LPG, CNG, biofuels, hybrid, electric, hydrogen) will be measured by means of a life cycle cost analysis. In addition, it will be investigated whether public transportation can be proposed as a cost-efficient alternative for the purchase and use of a vehicle. Moreover, it will be examined whether the current fiscal system is supporting clean vehicle technologies and whether new policy measures could increase their cost-efficiency. Finally, a car purchase and usage model will be developed with input from studies 1 and 2 to gain insights in the impact of various measures on the purchase behaviour and usage of cars by households and fleet managers. The fourth study will compare the complete environmental burden of different vehicle technologies by means of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Additionally, indicators will be constructed for the evaluation of the environmental and energy performance of conventional as well as alternative vehicle technologies. This will allow developing a model combining the different developed indicators and assessing the global environmental performance of the vehicle fleet. Finally, in the fifth study, the environmental, ecological and behavioural analyses will be combined for the development of a comprehensive tool to analyze the transition towards a more environmentally friendly car fleet.