Technology review and strategic proposal on regulation and policy to introduce micro electric vehicle

Abstract

In the field of transportation, environmental and social problems are severe and re-quired to be solved. For example, among total CO2 emissions, the road transportation field accounts for 20% of them. And, in case of a city, traffic congestion and lack of parking spac-es have been a serious problem. Furthermore, these are forecasted as more severe with the expected world population growth, centralization of populations to cities and the increase in the number of cars. In view of social welfare of transportation, transportation vulnerable groups are expected to grow due to the acceleration of the aged population globally. Various solutions, such as electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles and others, which are mainly for the bene-fit of the environment, have been proposed to solve these problems. However, their effects are still insufficient because these vehicles have the same application as existing vehicles ex-cept with different energy source. This thesis proposes new vehicle segment, micro electric vehicle (MEV), as one of the solutions which is expected to solve above problems, and play a role of different applications in society, such as welfare mobility, public-use and public transportation. Its characteristics of ‘using electricity’ and ‘micro’ can reduce CO2 emissions, and increase the capacity of existing road and parking spaces, and help transportation vulnerable group to move easily and conven-iently with reasonable operation costs and accessibility. However, to introduce this new MEV segment to society, a lot of issues should be considered, such as, research and development, fuel economy certification, safety regulations and policies. This thesis shows technical review, and reviews and discusses current regulations and policies applicable to MEVs from various perspectives. And strategic proposal for establishing a test-bed and initial direction of regula-tions to ensure MEV promotion are proposed and discussed.