Co2 Footprint Case Study Essay

With almost instantly rising fuel prices, most people are forced to look for ways in which they can reduce their fuel costs. Next to that, awareness regarding the CO2 footprint produced by conventional cars becomes higher and higher. Over the past years people started switching to smaller vehicles, often diesel engines, in order to reduce costs and CO2 footprint. The introduction of the electric car tries to continue this trend by becoming the main system of transportation (Ing, 2011). It is however questionable why opinions regarding acceptation of electric cars are so wide spread. Next to that it is questionable whether there is a clear picture of the general opinion regarding the acceptation of electric cars in such a complex multi actor environment.
In this research a case study will be used to test assumptions and to improve the readability of this report. The selected case study regarding the widespread electric car acceptance matches the following criteria; it is current, it has substantial impact on day-to-day life and it is a complex problem with different stakeholder perspectives.
When problems are complex, or there are multiple actors involved, or both, a lot of pros and cons need to be balanced. There are two fundamental different methodologies to work with.

For example one can use factor analysis, however, for most methods big data is needed. When three ministers, who clearly have different perspectives, are arguing about the design of a new EV regulation then you can’t use factor analysis. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a method that uses pairwise comparison. This means that even if you can collect a lot of data, AHP is still different and adding power. Within the field of MCDM, the AHP is known for its usage in complex situations (T. L. Saaty, 1988). Therefore the focus will be on AHP as a well-known and often used