Barriers to the adoption of electric vehicles in sea ports: with special reference to Indian sea ports

Abstract

The study Barriers to the adoption of electric vehicles in sea ports (with special reference to Indian ports) is aimed at identifying the barriers that hinder the sustainable mobility adoption alternatives within sea port environments. The study initially discusses the emissions by the maritime and ports industry, which are significant polluters globally. The thrust to decarbonisation and carbon-neutrality is causing a paradigm shift, wherein nations are determining their net zero commitments and taking drastic, remedial measures to achieve this lofty ideal. This requires all the industries and sectors to scale up their efforts in reducing overall carbon emissions. The maritime and port industry, which contributes around 2-3% of the global greenhouse gas emissions, is also taking positive steps towards net-zero. The emissions of the vehicles on roads are also discussed in detail. The research gap that was identified was that not much research has been done on this aspect, from the perspective of sea ports, especially sea ports in India. The barriers to the adoption of electric vehicles have been found out by literature review. There are five main criteria (cost, performance & reliability, infrastructure, service & maintenance and awareness) and sub-criteria included under them. The statistical tool used in this study is fuzzy AHP (analytic hierarchy process). For the purpose of the study, a questionnaire was prepared and responses were elicited from stakeholders in the maritime industry, namely port authority officials. The responses were then subjected to fuzzy AHP analysis, wherein the various barriers to EV adoption were ranked, according to the order of their significance. On the basis of this study, the most significant barrier to electric vehicle adoption in sea ports was identified as the cost - including the high initial cost of adoption of EVs and battery replacement costs. Performance & reliability, infrastructure, awareness and service & maintenance is the order in which the other barriers have been ranked accordingly.