Recent Studies

• A study entitled "Modeling the demand for electric mobility in the Canadian rental vehicle market" that was published in 2018, found that Canadians are becoming more interested in renting electric vehicles (EVs).
• This study identified the following population segments: "ICEV-oriented (22%), EV-curious (34%), Cost-sensitive (24%), and EV-oriented (20%)" using the latent class model.
• Canadian consumers who are EV-curious and EV-oriented may become more interested in renting EVs if there are "improvements in vehicle driving range and battery recharging time" while those who are cost-sensitive might become more interested in renting a hybrid electric vehicle if there are monetary incentives involved (e.g. rental discounts).
• Canadian sub-urban households with multiple vehicles and children tend to have higher mileages, suggesting that these types of consumers are probably more likely to interested in being mobile and having their own vehicles.
• According to data from the 2015 national survey, 18 of Canadian households could afford a battery electric vehicle, based on a comparison of "the total cost of ownership (TCO) for a BEV and an equivalent internal combustion engine vehicle (ICE) of similar vehicle class under a series of incentive and purchase price scenarios".

Older Studies

• A study based on car-sharing for consumers in North America (the U.S. and Canada) found that household vehicle holdings reduced from an average of 0.47 to 0.24 in a before-and-after analytical design.
• Having the car-sharing option caused households to opt for not having cars within their respective households. In essence, there was a significant shift in "one-car households becoming carless".

Summary

• Our background research shows that recent scholarly articles pertaining to mobility in Canada are more focused on electric vehicles, and the interest Canadians have in these types of vehicles.
• We found valuable insights from such sources that could be applicable to the general vehicle ownership concept in Canada but scholarly articles that focus more on preferences or values are rather old, such as the early 2000s and 1990s.
• The studies suggest that Canadians are seemingly more interested in rental services for electric vehicles, rather than private ownership. And in the past, car-sharing was of more value for them as they opted to be "carless" when this option was available.