IEEE Electrification - September 2019 - 63

reported that they make use of discounts and promotions offers.
More than 47% of respondents picked up their rental
vehicle at an airport or train station, while 35% and 8%
picked up from a branch close to their residence or place
of work, respectively. In terms of rental budget, 41% of
renters had a budget in the range of $20-$40, 32% had a
budget in the range of $41-$60, and only 12% had a rental budget of more than $81 per day. As for the distance
driven, 38% of respondents drove fewer than 200 km, 29%
drove 201-500 km, and 21% drove 501-1,000 km.
Fuel economy is regarded as the most important
among all vehicle characteristics. This was followed by the
availability of cargo space, good mileage, and rapid acceleration. The collected data also suggest that over one-third
of the respondents chose an intermediate sedan as their
preferred rental vehicle. The next three classes chosen by
respondents were full sedan (18%), economy sedan (17%),
and SUV (15%). These four classes accounted for 84% of
the chosen rental vehicles.
The SP portion of the consumer rental survey was an
important aspect. Each respondent was given six choice
scenarios for which to consider characteristics of the four
powertrains: ICE, HEV, PHEV, and BEV. The introduced
characteristics in each scenario included daily rental price
(in dollars) and fueling/charging cost (in dollars per
100 km), monetary incentives (discounts/promotions and
availability of a navigation device), nonmonetary incentives (access to priority lanes or free parking), performance measures (maximum range, reduction in tailpipe

Alberta

emissions, and acceleration), and convenience measures
(refueling or recharging time, availability of refueling/
recharging stations, and size of storage space).
Approximately 33% and 25% of renters selected ICE
and HEV, respectively. By comparison, 23% and 19%
gravitated toward PHEV and BEV, respectively. Figure 10
provides the choice experiment shares by province. The
figures indicate that the Atlantic provinces, with the
exception of Prince Edward Island, have a higher preference toward renting ICE vehicles. Interestingly, Ontario and British Columbia exhibit similar SP shares
among the four powertrains. Although Québec shows
a similar pattern, renters from this province have a
slightly higher preference for HEVs. The obtained
results suggest a higher BEV orientation among renters
compared to buyers, and this seems to come at the
expense of PHEVs relative to the choices made by
general consumer buyers (see the "Consumers" section) A higher share of BEVs among renters may be due
to a curiosity factor.

Transit
Among public transit fleets across Canada, buses play
a very important role. They are much more widespread, and they appear in many more municipal
jurisdictions than the most capital-intensive forms of
transit (i.e., subway and light rail). To this point in time,
bus fleets are largely conventional diesel, with an
increasing role for compressed natural gas (CNG) and
hybrid technologies. Results from our national tour of

British Columbia
Manitoba
New Brunswick

Nova Scotia
0.3

Prince Edward Island

0.29

Québec

0.29

Saskatchewan
0

0.28

0.27
30

40
ICE

50
(%)
HEV

0.17

0.38

0.32

0.21

0.24

0.25

PHEV

0.14
0.19

0.2

0.17

0.44

Ontario

0.14

0.22

0.5

0.08

0.17

0.33

0.42

Newfoundland

0.19

0.25

0.37

0.2

0.24

0.25

0.31

0.16

0.2

0.26

0.38

0.23

0.2

0.19

0.22

100

BEV

Figure 10. The stated preference shares by province of rented powertrains.

IEEE Electrific ation Magazine / S EP T EM BE R 2 0 1 9

IEEE Electrification - September 2019

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