Factors influencing global transportation electrification: Comparative analysis of electric and internal combustion engine vehicles

Growing environmental and energy security concerns have encouraged the global development of transportation electrification. Transportation electrification involves the transformation of personal, commercial, and public vehicles from fossil-fueled internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles into electric vehicles (EVs). This transition will restructure the transportation and energy sectors by shifting the gasoline demand to an electricity demand [1,2]. In the past decade, EVs have experienced drastic advancements in terms of vehicle, battery, and charger technologies. It is predicted that the EV cost and charging infrastructure, which had kept EVs beyond reach for mainstream consumers, are likely to be improved in the short term [3,4].

The global EV market share has increased tremendously in the past decade, and this trend is predicted to accelerate exponentially in the coming years. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) report, EV sales doubled in 2021, which hit a new record of 6.6 million [5]. This brought the total global on-road EVs to nearly 16.5 million [5]. China continued to lead the world's EV market, which accounted for approximately half of the global growth. Europe showed a continuous sales growth of up to 65% with 2.3 million sales [5]. This is followed by 630,000 sales in the United States in 2021 [5]. Other countries that also showed substantial progress in the EV market include South Korea and Japan. Despite the massive EV adoption in these developed countries, emerging and developing countries lagged behind. EV sales in India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia remained less than 0.5% [5].

Although many countries around the globe have pledged to fully phase out ICE vehicles before 2040, the EV deployment progress starkly differed between countries [6]. The factors that affect the EV adoption rate have been extensively investigated to foster EV penetration. The factors that influence customers' intention to adopt EVs have been categorized into three main types: demographic, situational, and psychological factors [7]. Demographic factors are related to individuals' characteristics, such as gender, educational level, income, and occupation. Situational factors are related to vehicle technology, such as the EV price, performance, and charging facilities. Lastly, psychological factors refer to the individuals’ experience with EVs, as well as the social influence. Another assessment of the factors that influence EV adoption was presented by Carolin and coworkers [8]. The main factors discussed include technical features, social influence, consumer attitude, sociodemography, and government policy.

Many countries are not prepared for the energy transition in the transportation industry. Lebrouhi and coworkers explored the key challenges to massive EV adoption [9]. The rapid transition from ICE vehicles to EVs may expose countries that depend on oil production to economic losses. According to Lebrouhi, large-scale EV adoption may devastate the existing industrial, commercial, social, and political balance. Besides, shifting the vehicle fuel demand into an electricity demand can cause an extreme burden to the power system. As EV adoption increases, the power system must follow the trend by increasing the power grid capacity and advancing system intelligence to coordinate with massive charging loads [10]. The impact of EV charging, where excessive integration of EVs into the distribution grid can potentially increase peak load, overload the system, introduce harmonics, cause frequency instability, and reduce system efficiency, was further emphasized [11]. Yong and coworkers discovered that EV charging can introduce voltage drop issues in the distribution network [12]. This issue is especially serious for a large-scale fast EV charging station.

The status and challenges of EV development for specific nations have been investigated in various studies. The current and future trends of EV charging infrastructure and the roadmap for EV penetration in India have been reviewed [13]. Various strategies such as fast charging, battery swapping, and wireless charging were recommended to strengthen the charging infrastructure in India. Another study highlighted the key challenges to large-scale EV deployment in Malaysia, including expensive EV prices, short EV driving range, limited charging infrastructure, lack of EV support policies, and incompatible power grid structure [14]. EV uptake in Australia is especially challenging because of the geographically large landmass with a low population density. Building social capital, advocating green growth, and pioneering new business models have been suggested to the Australian government for the adoption of the latest EV technologies [15]. Canada has similar geographical characteristics to Australia. It has been reported that the government incentive program can expedite EV adoption and that Canadian policymakers should focus on the affordability and expansion of the EV infrastructure [16].

In summary, the past decade has seen significant advancements in EV technology, and it is predicted that improvements in cost and charging infrastructure will make EVs more accessible to mainstream consumers. While developed countries such as China, Europe, and the United States have experienced massive EV adoption, emerging and developing countries like India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia lag behind. The factors influencing EV adoption have been categorized into demographic, situational, and psychological factors, including individual characteristics, vehicle technology, and social influence. Challenges to widespread EV adoption include economic losses for countries dependent on oil production and the need to upgrade power systems to accommodate increased electricity demand for charging. The impact of EV charging on the power grid, including issues of voltage drop and system overload, has also been emphasized. Specific challenges and trends in EV development have been examined for different countries. Strategies such as fast charging, battery swapping, and wireless charging have been recommended for India to strengthen EV charging infrastructure. In Malaysia, challenges include expensive EV prices, limited charging infrastructure, and lack of supportive policies. Australia and Canada face challenges related to their geographically large landmasses, low population densities, and the need for government incentives and infrastructure expansion to drive EV adoption.

The factors that influence EV adoption [7,8], the key challenges of energy transition in the transportation industry [[9], [10], [11], [12]], and EV development trends and strategies to expedite EV adoption for specific countries [[13], [14], [15], [16]] have been reported in the research work. EV development remained uneven throughout the globe, and the disparity in EV deployment between countries has inspired this study. Nevertheless, the aforementioned reviews did not comparatively analyze the influencing factors between countries. Additionally, geographical conditions, population densities, driving behaviors, social norms, and the average Gross Domestic Product per capita were dissimilar among countries. Hence, it is reasonable to investigate the competitiveness of EVs compared to ICE vehicles based on the market characteristics in various nations. This review bridges these research gaps by assessing the factors that influence global EV adoption via the comparative analysis between the competitiveness of EVs and ICE vehicles. The main contributions of this review include.

• •
  assessment of the world's EV adoption progress;
• •
  review of the factors influencing global EV adoption;
• •
  comparative analysis of influencing factors between countries;
• •
  investigation of the competitiveness of EVs compared to ICE vehicles based on the market characteristics in various countries;
• •
  recommendations to developing countries based on the experience learned from developed countries with higher EV adoption rates.

The methodology for this study involves several key steps. Firstly, data collection was conducted to gather technology penetration data for each country, including China, Europe, the United States, Japan, South Korea, India, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Relevant data on vehicle performance, charging infrastructure, government policies, and social factors influencing EV adoption were collected. Additionally, data on economic conditions, driving behaviors, population densities, societal norms, educational backgrounds, and geographical conditions were obtained for each country. Next, the collected data was subjected to rigorous data cleaning procedures. This ensures accuracy and reliability by removing any incomplete or inconsistent data points. The data was also standardized to facilitate meaningful comparisons across countries. The cleaned data was then organized into tables and graphs for easy interpretation and subjected to comparative analysis for each country. This analysis explored the relationship between EV adoption and factors such as vehicle performance, charging infrastructure, government policies, and social acceptance. Benchmarking was conducted to identify well-performing countries in terms of EV adoption. A comparison was made between the performance of these countries and those with lower EV adoption rates. Factors contributing to the success of well-performing countries and barriers faced by countries with lower adoption rates were identified. Based on the data analysis and benchmarking, tailored recommendations were developed for each country. These recommendations take into account specific market demand, economic conditions, driving behaviors, population densities, societal norms, educational backgrounds, and geographical conditions. The focus is on strategies to improve competitiveness, social acceptance, and market demand for EVs. Recommendations include introducing price-competitive EV models, strengthening incentives, extending driving ranges, diversifying battery manufacturers, developing charging infrastructure, promoting EV-enabled technologies, and increasing the use of renewable energy. Finally, the study concludes by summarizing the findings of the data analysis and presenting the key recommendations for each country. The importance of collaborative efforts to achieve widespread EV adoption and contribute to carbon neutrality is emphasized. The potential of sharing experiences and implementing effective strategies to accelerate the transition to electric transportation and mitigate environmental impacts is highlighted.

This review is organized as follows: The research background, research gaps, and literature review are presented in Section 1. Section 2 assesses global EV growth. A review of the factors that influence EV adoption is provided in Section 3. The comparative analysis of vehicle performance in different countries is provided in Section 4. The global EV charging infrastructures are analyzed in Section 5. Section 6 reviews the global EV policies. Section 7 highlights the social factors that influence EV adoption. Based on the findings, recommendations for EV development are presented in Section 8, and Section 9 concludes the research.