Effect of Having Solar Panels on the Probability of Owning Battery Electric Vehicle

Abstract

Greenhouse gas emissions, produced by various sectors, including transportation, are significantly impairing the environment and drive climate change. Battery electric vehicles are increasingly seen as a way to alleviate these problems, but they must be charged with electricity produced through environmentally friendly methods. This paper investigates a possible relationship between battery electric vehicles and solar photovoltaic panels using ENABLE.EU household survey data from ten European countries in autumn 2017–spring 2018. Based on the estimates from a recursive bivariate probit model, it is found that the probability that a household owns a battery electric vehicle increases significantly if said household owns solar photovoltaic panels. This suggests that a policy encouraging the home charging of battery electric vehicles using solar photovoltaic panels that includes an energy storage facility could speed up the transition to the use of these vehicles.