Developing a vehicle cost calculator to promote electrical vehicle adoption among transportation network company (TNC) drivers

This research developed EV Explorer 2.0, an online vehicle cost calculator
(VCC) to meet the requirements of transportation network company (TNC)
drivers considering acquiring an electric vehicle (EV). The tool was built
to also support the needs of other users considering an EV, including
other types of gig economy drivers as well as the general population of
non-professional drivers. EV Explorer 2.0 includes several important
features and functionalities to support the TNC driver use case that are
not found in any other available tool: (1) It allows users to estimate TCO
for used vehicles as well as new (others only estimate TCO for new
vehicles); (2) Outputs include ridehail-driving income estimates,
accounting for EV trip bonuses offered by Uber, net driving costs; (3)
Estimates of total cost of driving (TCD) include charging network
membership fees and charging session fees (in addition to electricity
prices). It also includes key features found in other leading tools, such
as presenting and tailoring EV purchase/lease incentive estimates (based
on a database we developed), and innovative features to benefit all users,
such as animations conveying the social and environmental impacts of
vehicle choice. Design features were informed and validated in user
testing with TNC drivers who had expressed interest in EV adoption.

本研究研发了EV Explorer 2.0——一款在线车辆成本计算器（Vehicle Cost Calculator，VCC），旨在满足有意购置电动汽车（Electric Vehicle，EV）的交通网络公司（Transportation Network Company，TNC）驾驶员的使用需求。该工具同时可覆盖其他有意向选购电动汽车的用户群体，包括其他类型的零工经济驾驶员，以及非职业驾驶的普通大众。EV Explorer 2.0具备多项针对TNC驾驶员使用场景的专属功能特性，为当前市面已有同类工具所不具备：（1）支持用户估算新车与二手车的总拥有成本（Total Cost of Ownership，TCO）——现有同类工具仅可估算新车的TCO；（2）输出内容包含网约车驾驶收入预估，核算了优步（Uber）针对电动汽车出行提供的行程补贴，以及净驾驶成本；（3）总驾驶成本（Total Cost of Driving，TCD）的估算涵盖充电网络会员费与单次充电服务费（额外包含电价成本）。此外，该工具还集成了其他主流同类工具的核心功能，例如基于自建数据库生成并定制电动汽车购置/租赁补贴估算方案；同时搭载面向全体用户的创新功能，比如通过动画展示车辆选择对社会与环境产生的影响。本工具的设计方案经由对有意向采纳电动汽车的TNC驾驶员开展的用户测试进行验证与优化。