Abstract

Electric vehicles are mostly used in the niche market. Compared to the common consumers, commercial uses are more suitable as target markets for electric vehicles at the initial rollout stage. The main obstacles for promoting electric vehicles are higher production cost (of which battery accounts for a major part) and paucity for public charging stations. It is relatively easy to make a breakthrough in commercial markets than in common consumer market, as far as the operational characteristics for commercial vehicles are concerned. At the present moment, testing operations for all kinds of electric commercial vehicle (BEV) throughout the world remain experimental, small-scaled, in a limited area, or still undergoing evaluation. Actual stable profit-producing examples have not yet materialized so far. This thesis probes into current operational condition of commercial vehicle fleet in Taiwan and evaluates the electrification, so as to propose potential business models in the future.