Mercedes Burguillo Cuesta

Title : The influence of household characteristics on the purchase of clean cars: The case of Spain

Abstract:

This research determines the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of Spanish households that use a clean car(electric or hybrid), with the aim of identifying how these characteristicsinfluence the market penetration of these vehicles. This study is one of the few in the literature that analyses the characteristics of car users based on a broad sample of data, that is representative of 11.5 million Spanish households. The data used are from the Households Budget Survey of the Spanish National Institute of Statistics for the period 2016-2019. The results allow us to identify socioeconomic challenges and opportunities regarding the goal of replacing combustion vehicles with clean vehicles. We find as the main weakness the fact that high-income households (fourth quartile) are 29% more likely to use a clean vehicle than low-income households (first quartile). The strengths are related to features like the gender and age of the household’s main breadwinner: households whose main breadwinner is a male are more likely to use clean vehiclesthan households whose main breadwinner is a woman, and households whose main breadwinner is over 55 or under 30 years of age are more likely to use one than households with main breadwinners from the rest of the population. These results provide guidelinesfor a better design of public policies aimed at decarbonizing the transportsectorthrough the replacement of conventional vehicles by clean ones. To do so it isimportant to consider the features of the social reality in which that objective is to be achieved. 

Audience Take Away
•   The audience will have more knowledge about the challenges of the energy transition in the private vehicles sector
•    This research could be used to expand the research in other faculties or research institutions 
working on energy transitions issues
•    This research provide guidelines for a better design of public policies aimed at decarbonizing 
the transport sector through the replacement of conventional vehicles by clean ones

Biography:

Mercedes Burguillo Cuesta has a PhD in Economics from the University Autónoma de Madrid. She has been a professor at the European University of Madrid, the University of Valladolid and the Carlos III University. She is currently associate professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Alcalá. Her research is focused on the economic analysis of the use of energy and transport. She has participated in different research projects related to these topics and has published numerous international scientific articles on these issues. She also collaborates as reviewer in journals like, Transportation Research A, Transport Reviews, Energy Policy. She has been the editor of a Special Issue in the journal Research in Transportation Economics volume 85. She has received the award Campus de Excelencia Internacional “Energía Inteligente” of the University of Alcalá and the University Rey Juan Carlos in 2015.