One of the biggest obstacles to wider adoption of electric vehicles (EV) is completely invisible and unquantifiable: the belief in many consumers' minds that the range limitations of EVs make them a bad option. Doubts about mobility, whether well-founded or not, can run neck and neck with curiosity in consumers' minds, keeping them from making the switch from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to EVs.
These doubts are beyond the remedial reach of automakers and sustainability-minded policymakers. Within the EV ecosystem, auto dealerships are the ones most directly responsible for allaying buyers' concerns. Newly published research by Ioannis Bellos and Hang Ren, professors in the information systems and operations management area at Costello College of Business at George Mason University, focuses on one of the main levers at dealers' disposal: extended test drives. Bellos and Ren's paper in Production and Operations Management was co-authored by Vishal Agrawal of Georgetown University.
Test drives have become a standard addition to an EV dealer's toolkit. For example, BMW's Extended Test Drive Program lets customers use an EV for several days, and Volvo's Test Drive+ lends cars for up to four days. In some cases, government-sponsored initiatives such as Drive Electric U.S. (a partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy) have worked at the local level to facilitate test drives intended to educate consumers about EVs.
