adoption of electric vehicles. The Social Impact Assessment (SIA) has become a key factor to determine the viability

of projects, know the population's expectations about projects or programs, carry out a market study and help in decision

making. In this study, we propose an approach for SIA using an integrated gray clustering and entropy weighting

method (the IGCEW method), In Peru, four interest groups were identified and the three main barriers were evaluated.

As a result, the weights of each barrier in the introduction of electric vehicles in an emerging market will be obtained.

Keywords: Electric vehicles; barriers; Adoption of EV; Emerging markets.

Doctor. Association of Energy Engineers (United States of America),

Máster en Ingeniería Civil. Universidad Autónoma del Perú (Perú),

cities in the world. According to WHO, in Lima 15,000 people die annually due to respiratory and cardiac diseases

caused or aggravated by environmental pollution [2], It can’t be overemphasized that chaotic transportation and

uncontrolled pollution negatively impact public health and quality of life, as well as public safety, security and business

development, including tourism [3]. According to Peru’s National Society of Mining, Petroleum and Energy (SNMPE),

the trade balance of hydrocarbons for Peru is negative (more imports than exports) and this situation has caused a trade

deficit of US$3,587 million in 2017 [4]. This shows Peru is highly dependent on imported oil, weakening its trade

balance. This makes Peru a vulnerable country, economically and strategically.

So, it is imperative that the government of Peru urgently focus on developing and implementing viable and sustainable

expensive to buy internationally, transport electrification should be an obvious alternative. But, thus far, it is not in

Peru. Note Peru has untapped potential in hydro, solar, wind, geothermal and cogeneration (combined heat and power).

But oil and gas, addiction and dependency, are hard to quit.

Europe has the transport white paper as a roadmap towards a competitive and efficient transport system in the use of

resources, with goals for 2050, the reduction of GHGs in the European Union of between 80 and 95% in 2050 compared

to 1990 levels, in addition the use of conventionally fueled cars in urban transport should be reduced by 50% by 2030,

and in cities completely eliminated by 2050 [6]. That is to say, in Europe it is already included in the design of energy

and transportation policy [7], as well as in the main polluting countries such as China [8] and the United States. [9].

Peru also has a goal of reducing 40% of CO2 emissions by 2030. According to Peru’s Ministry of the Environment

total sales. Germany announced a goal to supply 1 million EVs by 2020 [12], but the IEA reports that the country didn’t

reach half a million in sales in 2020. Therefore, many leading countries have tried ambitious adoption and deployment

goals, but the actual adoption rate is much lower than expected. The percentage of EVs sold in the world during 2020

by country is shown in Figure 1.

Nevertheless, sales of EVs are slowly increasing everywhere. Consequently, we must insist on better ways to increase

adoption and penetration of EVs using public, private and non-government means. Figure 1 clearly shows a big gap

barrier is the natural resistance to change of consumers with respect to new technologies, that may be considered foreign

or unproven [14]. Thus, seriously considering such attitude is key in first understanding the barrier and eventually in

overcoming it. Acceptance by a specific user is hard to predict, and attitudes toward EVs vary greatly between real and

potential users [15] for BEV, it is particularly important to acknowledge that entrenched perceptions are affected by

historical concerns (often no longer valid) with respect to low performance, poor functionality and safety [16].

It has been shown that it is important to deeply analyze attitudes and perceptions, with respect to widespread adoption

[14]. Thus, social impact evaluation, such as SIA, applied to stakeholders at the outset of projects, by integrating

technical, social and behavioral perspectives, has been proposed to achieve effective transport decarbonization [17].

Some of the main challenges for adoption include battery technology (capacity/ range/weight), battery cost, and charge

2. State of the art. -Widespread adoption of EVs has had resistance in countries and cities. Some barriers are more

important than others. Barriers often vary by location, market, type of vehicle, vehicle application, culture, economics,

geography and energy resources. According to Berkeley et al., 2018, in Europe resistance to adoption is characterized

by 12 barriers made of two main groups: “economic uncertainty” and “socio- technical factors.” Economic uncertainty

is associated with age and geography, while the socio-technical issues are related to gender [18]. EV sales in 32

European countries identified country economic standing and fuel price [19].

In the Nordic region, common barriers are EV range, price and charge infrastructure in spite of technological progress.

It has been shown that many barriers are highly interrelated and, in general, connected to consumer knowledge and

In the UK and Germany, stakeholders report that technology bugs continue to plague EVs’ commercial viability. Other

barriers are fragmented infrastructure, lack of standards and regulations, and new technology skepticism among

consumers [27]. In Switzerland and Finland, a key barrier to widespread adoption is BEV battery capacity, which is

the main cause of range anxiety [28]. In Italy, the main barrier is high prices of EVs as compared with conventional

cars. In Norway, financial incentives triggered a lower TCO for EVs. In the Netherlands, France and the UK, EV TCO

is close to those of ICEVs. In other countries, EV TCOs continue to be higher than conventional cars [29]. Similarly, a

study by Palmer shows that in the UK and the US (California and Texas), TOC of every type of electric vehicles (BEV,

EVH, and PHEV) is relatively higher than the TOC of ICEV. But the gap has been reduced since the introduction of

more EVs in 2015. The gap changed less in the UK, due primarily to the lack of EV subsidies [30]. In France, high

In China (Tianjin) public perception barriers to BEV were surveyed, showing that high battery cost topped the barrier

list [34]. Other Chinese authors said that in smaller cities with lower income, smaller population and infrastructure

limitations, the consumers are more sensitive to purchase price, purchase subsidies and charge station coverage, in

contrast to larger cities with more EVs [35]. A different report (He, Zhan, & Hu, 2018) shows that personal norms and

consumer personality have a positive influence in proclivity to EV purchasing; specifically, consumers’ innovation

attitude and environmental concerns were influential. However, environmental concerns are tempered with high

external EV cost, including actual purchase cost and perceived complexity [36].

In South America, barriers to implementing a fleet of EV taxis in the city of Cuenca, Ecuador, are broken down as

follows: 50% are technological barriers, including range, charge time, charge infrastructure, and certified service

infrastructure, and range limitation, real or perceived, are often mentioned. There is always some social skepticism and

lack of knowledge from most new potential EV consumers [39].

2.1 Objective of the study. - Thus far, the social impact of barriers to EV adoption has been chiefly carried out through

qualitative means, resulting in rather subjective interpretations. Consequently, the objective of this work is to apply a

Step 7. For our purpose of prioritizing the policies, equation (10) is obtained, obtaining the Weight of the criterion

efficiency, vehicle aerodynamics, driving habits, loads (carrying and hauling), road quality, geography, etc. This factor

is often a defining one for many potential buyers [39]. Such concern has been consistently observed in the US [14],

Switzerland and Finland [28]. In Ecuador, range is considered the main barrier [37], as well as in Singapore [33],

Germany [25], and the UK [22].

High Price. - The gap between an EV’s initial cost and a conventional ICEV’s varies between the cost US $6,000 to

$8,000 of comparable vehicles. In 32 European countries, the purchasing cost was identified as the main economic

barrier [19]. This was shown in France [31], Latvia [32], and the Netherlands [24]. Also, initial cost was the main

barrier in China [34] and Argentina [38]. A high initial cost impacts “Overall Cost of Ownership” or TCO, which also

a key concern, given the lack of availability of rapid-charging stations. Most users do not want to interrupt and delay

their road or city trips with excessive charging times [22], [25], [53]. In addition, charging time relates to range anxiety

(smaller batteries can be charged quicker but have shorter EV range). Both factors are serious obstacles for adoption

[28]. Thus quicker, more powerful (kW) and more expensive chargers are needed or expected for EVs with larger

batteries (more kWh). Such expectations are manifest in Sweden [21], France [31], Singapore [33], Latvia [32],

Colombia [54] and Argentina [38]. Technical barriers such as “lack of charge infrastructure,” and “real vs. perceived

range limitations” are present in most countries. In addition, there is “social skepticism” due to lack of awareness and

knowledge by consumers [39]. In Latvia, a larger number of charge stations and free charging policy are appreciated

by users [55], while in Switzerland and Finland, consumers demand ease (speed) of charging [28]. In general,

commercial users have a higher preference for rapid charging systems, than private users [56].

6. Conclusions. - We have first identified and then qualitatively evaluated the barriers that impede EV’s widespread

adoption in Lima, Peru. Next, we have ranked and prioritized such barriers to help define more effective government

and business policies that support a transition to EVs. By applying the IGCEW method, we have been able to make

sense of qualitative information provided by four (4) stakeholder groups. We found that the first barrier is purchase

price (initial cost), next is charging availability (ease of charging), and finally EV/battery range. A higher purchase