The Economic Case for Electric Vehicles in Public Sector Fleets: An Italian Case Study

The paper investigates whether it makes economic sense to use electric vehicles (EVs) in the public sector fleet. Thanks to the data collected in 2018 in 77 public sector entities in an Italian region, Friuli Venezia Giulia, we compare the total cost of ownership of a battery electric vehicle with that of a similar internal combustion engine one. We provide estimates for four scenarios (status quo, social cost internalization, price discounts and a combination of the last two) for three groups of public entities (local health authorities, municipalities and special purpose authorities) regarding passenger cars and mixed-use small light commercial vehicles. We find that, with the current price and cost structure, it makes economic sense to adopt EVs for a positive although relatively small percentage of the public sector fleet.