The Emerging Electric Vehicle Market In Finland–Managing The Uncertainties In The Finnish Electric Vehicle Ecosystem

The Electric Vehicle industry has been witnessing a surge in demand due to technological advancements and increased focus on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which is one of the main causes of climate change. Finland has aimed to raise the number of Electric Vehicles on its roads to 250,000 by year 2030 (from 2,250 in year 2016). In January 2018, the number of electric cars and hybrid Electric Vehicles in Finland was 7,000. Unfortunately, there are several problems, such as, high price of Electric Vehicle, dearth of charging stations, and long waiting period for charging. In this doctoral thesis, the AIM is to analyse the uncertainties faced by the Finnish Electric Vehicle ecosystem, and its resilience. The novelty is that this thesis evaluates the impact of the process of transitioning to Electric Vehicles on the ecosystem, and, managing the uncertainties faced by the stakeholders of the Electric Vehicle ecosystem. In addition, this thesis analyses the ecosystem in pre- and post-transition phases. The research questions are presented in the three stages of adoption of Electric Vehicles, namely, pre-transition (before year 2020), during transition (years 2020 - 2050), and post-transition (after year 2050). The primary ontological question of this dissertation is, ‘How is the Electric Vehicle ecosystem managing transition uncertainties?’. The research material will be obtained from companies (related to Electric Vehicles, its charging & infrastructure), organizations (such as, VTT), government and municipality, customers etc. The research methods will be of mixed-methods design, combining literature review, qualitative interview study, case study and a survey as well as graphical simulations. For analysing the research questions, ecosystem mapping, relationship matrix building, scenario building, Delphi method, PESTEL, SWOT, Porter's Five Forces Framework and uncertainty analysis will be conducted.