IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v18y2025i13p3268-d1684851.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Contextual Analysis of Battery Electric Vehicles’ Adoption in Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Federico Silvestri

    (Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, 20156 Milano, Italy)

  • Seyed Mahdi Miraftabzadeh

    (Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, 20156 Milano, Italy)

  • Michela Longo

    (Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, 20156 Milano, Italy)

  • Dario Zaninelli

    (Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, 20156 Milano, Italy)

Abstract

This study investigates the context in which the adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) takes place in Italy. Several region-specific characteristics pertaining to socioeconomic conditions, transportation, and infrastructure are studied and combined by means of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and k -means clustering. The model acts as a tool able to provide a 3D visualization of the relative states of the 20 regions analyzed. Three Principal Components are computed, and seven clusters are identified and described, with Lombardy, Trentino-South Tyrol, Aosta Valley, and Lazio showing an advanced level of adoption compared to the rest of Italy. Key findings indicate that regional incentives are necessary to accelerate adoption in underperforming regions, and that incentives targeting the scrapping of old vehicles might not always be useful. To address the emerging disparities, recommendations tailored to the individual territories are provided.

Suggested Citation

  • Federico Silvestri & Seyed Mahdi Miraftabzadeh & Michela Longo & Dario Zaninelli, 2025. "Contextual Analysis of Battery Electric Vehicles’ Adoption in Italy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-23, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:13:p:3268-:d:1684851
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/13/3268/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/13/3268/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cristian Giovanni Colombo & Fabio Borghetti & Michela Longo & Federica Foiadelli, 2023. "Electrification of Motorway Network: A Methodological Approach to Define Location of Charging Infrastructure for EV," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-21, November.
    2. Bellocchi, Sara & Klöckner, Kai & Manno, Michele & Noussan, Michel & Vellini, Michela, 2019. "On the role of electric vehicles towards low-carbon energy systems: Italy and Germany in comparison," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    3. Javazi, Leila & Alinaghian, Mahdi & Khosroshahi, Hossein, 2025. "Evaluating government policies promoting electric vehicles, considering battery technology, energy saving, and charging infrastructure development: A game theoretic approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 390(C).
    4. Peng, Ruoqing & Tang, Justin Hayse Chiwing G. & Yang, Xiong & Meng, Meng & Zhang, Jie & Zhuge, Chengxiang, 2024. "Investigating the factors influencing the electric vehicle market share: A comparative study of the European Union and United States," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 355(C).
    5. Giansoldati, Marco & Monte, Adriana & Scorrano, Mariangela, 2020. "Barriers to the adoption of electric cars: Evidence from an Italian survey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    6. Egnér, Filippa & Trosvik, Lina, 2018. "Electric vehicle adoption in Sweden and the impact of local policy instruments," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 584-596.
    7. Guido Ala & Gabriella Di Filippo & Fabio Viola & Graziella Giglia & Antonino Imburgia & Pietro Romano & Vincenzo Castiglia & Filippo Pellitteri & Giuseppe Schettino & Rosario Miceli, 2020. "Different Scenarios of Electric Mobility: Current Situation and Possible Future Developments of Fuel Cell Vehicles in Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-22, January.
    8. Noel, Lance & Papu Carrone, Andrea & Jensen, Anders Fjendbo & Zarazua de Rubens, Gerardo & Kester, Johannes & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2019. "Willingness to pay for electric vehicles and vehicle-to-grid applications: A Nordic choice experiment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 525-534.
    9. Comodi, G. & Caresana, F. & Salvi, D. & Pelagalli, L. & Lorenzetti, M., 2016. "Local promotion of electric mobility in cities: Guidelines and real application case in Italy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 494-503.
    10. Morton, Craig & Anable, Jillian & Yeboah, Godwin & Cottrill, Caitlin, 2018. "The spatial pattern of demand in the early market for electric vehicles: Evidence from the United Kingdom," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 119-130.
    11. Younes Mohammadi & Aleksey Palstev & Boštjan Polajžer & Seyed Mahdi Miraftabzadeh & Davood Khodadad, 2023. "Investigating Winter Temperatures in Sweden and Norway: Potential Relationships with Climatic Indices and Effects on Electrical Power and Energy Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-34, July.
    12. Simona Bigerna & Silvia Micheli, 2018. "Attitudes Toward Electric Vehicles: The Case of Perugia Using a Fuzzy Set Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-14, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Caulfield, Brian & Furszyfer, Dylan & Stefaniec, Agnieszka & Foley, Aoife, 2022. "Measuring the equity impacts of government subsidies for electric vehicles," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    2. Müller, Wieland & Leyer, Michael & Degirmenci, Kenan & Barros, Alistair, 2025. "Designing EV charging networks from a city perspective: A conceptual analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    3. Mukherjee, Sanghamitra Chattopadhyay & Ryan, Lisa, 2020. "Factors influencing early battery electric vehicle adoption in Ireland," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    4. Bartolini, Andrea & Comodi, Gabriele & Salvi, Danilo & Østergaard, Poul Alberg, 2020. "Renewables self-consumption potential in districts with high penetration of electric vehicles," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    5. Austmann, Leonhard M., 2021. "Drivers of the electric vehicle market: A systematic literature review of empirical studies," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    6. Elena Higueras-Castillo & Sebastian Molinillo & J. Andres Coca-Stefaniak & Francisco Liébana-Cabanillas, 2020. "Potential Early Adopters of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles in Spain—Towards a Customer Profile," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-18, May.
    7. Haustein, Sonja & Jensen, Anders Fjendbo & Cherchi, Elisabetta, 2021. "Battery electric vehicle adoption in Denmark and Sweden: Recent changes, related factors and policy implications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    8. Philip, Thara & Whitehead, Jake & Prato, Carlo G., 2023. "Adoption of electric vehicles in a laggard, car-dependent nation: Investigating the potential influence of V2G and broader energy benefits on adoption," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    9. Jia, Wenjian & Chen, T. Donna, 2023. "Investigating heterogeneous preferences for plug-in electric vehicles: Policy implications from different choice models," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    10. Mamkhezri, Jamal, 2025. "Public preferences for battery electric vehicle policies considering energy mix: A US choice experiment study," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    11. Heinisch, Verena & Göransson, Lisa & Erlandsson, Rasmus & Hodel, Henrik & Johnsson, Filip & Odenberger, Mikael, 2021. "Smart electric vehicle charging strategies for sectoral coupling in a city energy system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 288(C).
    12. Federico Miconi & Giovanna Maria Dimitri, 2023. "A machine learning approach to analyse and predict the electric cars scenario: The Italian case," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(1), pages 1-26, January.
    13. Géremi Gilson Dranka & Paula Ferreira, 2020. "Electric Vehicles and Biofuels Synergies in the Brazilian Energy System," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-22, August.
    14. Lin, Joanne Yuh-Jye & Jenelius, Erik & Cebecauer, Matej & Rubensson, Isak & Chen, Cynthia, 2023. "The equity of public transport crowding exposure," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    15. Guo, Shuocheng & Kontou, Eleftheria, 2021. "Disparities and equity issues in electric vehicles rebate allocation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    16. Kamile Petrauskiene & Jolanta Dvarioniene & Giedrius Kaveckis & Daina Kliaugaite & Julie Chenadec & Leonie Hehn & Berta Pérez & Claudio Bordi & Giorgio Scavino & Andrea Vignoli & Michael Erman, 2020. "Situation Analysis of Policies for Electric Mobility Development: Experience from Five European Regions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-21, April.
    17. Gruber, Mario, 2020. "An evolutionary perspective on adoption-diffusion theory," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 535-541.
    18. Abdulaziz Alshammari & Rakan C. Chabaan, 2023. "Metaheruistic Optimization Based Ensemble Machine Learning Model for Designing Detection Coil with Prediction of Electric Vehicle Charging Time," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-17, April.
    19. Jia, Wenjian & Jiang, Zhiqiu & Wang, Qian & Xu, Bin & Xiao, Mei, 2023. "Preferences for zero-emission vehicle attributes: Comparing early adopters with mainstream consumers in California," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 21-32.
    20. Mandys, Filip & Taneja, Shivani, 2024. "Demand for green and fossil fuel automobiles," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:13:p:3268-:d:1684851. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.