The state-of-the-art of shared and electric mobility: the eHUBS project's findings

In order to investigate the state-of-the-art related to eHUBS, project partners TU Delft and Newcastle University have performed a comprehensive review of existing literature regarding shared e-mobility, which includes shared electric vehicles, e-bikes and e-scooters, with a particular focus on three topics: shared e-mobility services’ usage pattern, demand determinants and potential impacts.

The main findings were the following:

• shared e-mobility services are mainly used for short trips,
• their current users are mostly male, middle-aged people with relatively high income and education.
• all shared e-mobility modes appeal to people with similar socio-demographic characteristics; and they generate higher demand in locations with better transport connection and more point of interests.
• shared e-mobility services can potentially lead to positive impacts on transportation and environment, such as reducing car use, car ownership, and greenhouse gas emissions.

The investigation on the state-of-the-art related to eHUBS provides the underpinning for the methodological approach of the project. It also helps the cities to gain a good knowledge of existing findings of shared e-mobility, which facilitates informed decision making.

A quick scan regarding the potential of shared e-mobility demand for the pilot cities was also conducted. For each city, heatmaps were created with the purpose of indicating  each zone’s demand level of shared electric cars and e-bikes relative to all other zones. According to models which are estimated following real transaction records of shared EV and e-bike services, the demand indicator of each zone is determined by the socio-demographics of local population, transport connections and land use conditions.  The development of these heatmaps have the objective to help the cities with their strategic selection of eHUBS locations.