The main purpose of the ELAN project is enhanced and accurate knowledge on the diffusion of electric vehicles and on the innovations and strategies required to reach Norway's ambitious national goals for the low emission society. Using state of the art research methods, the project will monitor and take advantage of the extraordinary battery electric vehicle market development taking place in Norway.

Battery electric passenger vehicles (BEVs) reached a market share of 17% in Norway in 2015 and have effortlessly been taken into use by multivehicle households. The 2016 National Transport Plan proposal states that only zero emission vehicles shall be sold from 2025. The BEV market must thus be extended also to single vehicle owning households leading to a need to overcome much more challenging user barriers, related to range, charge time and infrastructure. Innovations on many levels, in an extensive interplay between technology, policy and new and existing actors, will be required.

The results will be large reductions in fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions, paving the way for a future-oriented city and regional development, as well as innovation in enterprises and the development of new solutions. Previous research will quickly be outdated, consequently new and deeper research based knowledge will be needed.

The ELAN project will take the form of an «electromobility lab», enhancing the knowledge on (i) the potential for completely replacing the sales of ICE passenger vehicles with electric vehicles by 2025, (ii) the prerequisites for achieving such a target, and (iii) the short and long term societal consequences of doing so.

A broad research framework, combining different theories and paradigms, i.e. socio-economic concepts with econometric modelling, will be used by ELAN researchers in the systematic analysis of the BEV diffusion in Norway.