Cohousing and EV Sharing: Field-tests in Flanders

This paper investigates the potential of electric vehicles (EVs) in a context of a pilot test in Belgium, consisting of car sharing services managed and exploited in small communities. Part of a broader testing activity in the framework of the e-Mobility NSR project, the test had the objective of metering EVs' charging and consumption in real daily transport operations, but soon it acquired new meanings. It shaped EV sharing services at a small scale, directly managed by the users, which also share energy and maintenance costs. The chosen context was cohousing, a special type of collaborative housing, and four ones were selected in Flanders: two urban units and two larger semi-urban ones. The two urban communities received a prepaid card for reserving and using EVs provided by Cambio, a Belgian car sharing company. The other two cohousings received two EVs and a charging box, organising and running an internal car sharing system for the duration of 1 year. During the tests, quantitative and qualitative data were collected. The paper reports the intermediate results, identifying potential EV sharing consumers, based on their behaviour and attitudes in relation to the condition of the local context in which they live.