• adoption
• Bass model
• competition
• diffusion
• dynamics
• electric vehicle
• EV
• innovation
• Lotka-Volterra
• nonlinear models

The diffusion of electric vehicles for private transport could prove to be one of the several possibilities to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change. Obviously, the alternative-fuelled car should be powered by clean energy, coming from renewable sources, and should represent a transition innovation leading to a global reduction of consumption.
The present work aims at deepening the adoption dynamics behind the EV uptake. The diffusion models for single and competing items are analysed in order to clarify the reasons behind the current EV adoptions. The thesis is structured in two main and comprehensive chapters: the first chapter highlights the baseline diffusion model for a single product, the Bass model, the basic diffusion model in competitive settings, the Lotka-Volterra model in competition, and several extensions of the two previous models, which account for more complicated contexts and hypotheses; the second chapter deals with the history and the technical features of the EV, then it illustrates the EV adoptions worldwide, at European and at national level, with specific in-depth
analyses of the Italian and the Norwegian contexts, moreover it presents the adoption process and the characteristics of the Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV), which is a strong competitor of the EV, and finally it analyses the competition occurring between EVs and SUVs both in Italy and in Norway.