The potential of electromobility in Austria: Evidence from hybrid choice models under the presence of unreported information

This paper analyses the impact of the introduction of electromobility in Austria, focusing specifically on the potential demand for electric vehicles in the automotive market. We estimate discrete choice behavioral mixture models considering latent variables; these allows us to deal with this potential demand as well as to analyze the effect of different attributes of the alternatives over the potential market penetration. We find out that some usual assumptions regarding electromobility also hold for the Austrian market (e.g. proclivity of green-minded people and reluctance of older individuals), while others are only partially valid (e.g. the power of the engine is not relevant for purely electric vehicles). Along the same line, it is established that some policy incentives would have a positive effect for the demand for electrical cars, while others - such as an annual Park and Ride subscription or a one-year-ticket for public transportation - would not increase the willingness-to-pay for electromobility. Our work suggests the existence of reliability thresholds concerning the availability of charging stations. Finally this paper enunciates and successfully tests an alternative approach to address unreported information regarding income in presence of endogeneity and multiple information sources. We find that, for our sample, the presence of endogeneity and correlation makes both classical imputation techniques unsuitable. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.