A model based on MEREC-CRADIS objective decision-making methods and the application of double normalization: A case study of the selection of electric cars

Abstract

Abstract Climate changes and the number of people in the world are increasingly affecting the environment. In order to reduce this impact, there are more and more alternatives to cars with internal combustion. Currently, the most used alternative is electric cars. This research aimed to rank electric cars according to their characteristics. It was selected 13 criteria according to which 20 alternatives were ranked. For this purpose, it was used two methods, MEREC (Method based on the Removal Effects of Criteria) used to determine criterion weights objectively and CRADIS (Compromise Ranking of Alternatives from Distance to Ideal Solution) method used to rank alternatives. These methods were modified so that double normalization was used. Unlike similar approaches, the same normalization has been used here, but in two ways, which represents an innovative approach in multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM). The results of this approach have shown that the best-ranked alternative is A6 (Sono Sion), while the worst-ranked alternative is A2 (Smart EQ forfour). These results were confirmed with a comparative analysis of the results obtained using other MCDM methods and sensitivity analysis. The conducted research has shown that the application of double normalization contributes to stability in decision-making. In addition, this decision-making provides support to potential buyers for choosing electric cars.