Future Urban Transportation Technologies for Sustainability with an Emphasis on Growing Mega Cities: A Strategic Proposal on Introducing a New Micro Electric Vehicle Segment

Abstract

The current transportation regime is largely based on two alternatives: (1) fixed route public transit, and (2) private ownership of internal combustion engine (ICE) powered vehicles per households. This paper analyzes one possible transportation alternative, Micro Electric Vehicles or MEVs, and compares with the ICE vehicles in terms of social, economic and environmental benefits, especially emphasizing its environmental advantage over ICE vehicles for future sustainability. While some representative models of MEVs exist in a limited market capacity, but global technical standards are generally insufficient and non-homogenous across nations, which restricts the development of the proposed transportation sector. The focus of this paper is to analyze the characteristics and potential benefits of MEVs in economical and environmental perspectives, including development status and technical standards, with a particular focus in the E.U., the U.S., Japan, and Korea. Based on the data of analysis, this paper aims to derive and propose a cooperative and adaptive global policy framework designed to speed up adoption and expansion of the global MEV market, including passenger and utility vehicles. We propose MEV to be a new mobility segment in the global transportation market because of their advantage in environmental impact, sustainability, overall cost of ownership, and safety.