Willingness to pay for the infrastructure investments for alternative fuel vehicles

This study investigates potential demand for infrastructure investment for alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) by using a stated preference survey of 1,531 Japanese citizens. The potential demand is estimated on the basis of how much people are willing to pay for AFVs under different refueling scenarios. By using the estimated parameters, the economic efficiency of establishing battery exchange stations for electric vehicles is examined. The result indicates that infrastructural development of battery exchange stations can be socially efficient when the percentage of electric vehicle purchasers out of the total number of new vehicle purchasers exceeds 5.63%. Furthermore, in contrast to intuitive prediction, we found a complement relationship between the cruising ranges of AFVs and the infrastructures established. The result suggests that people with AFVs might change their total trip distance depending on the sufficiency of infrastructure investment.