How Can Sustainable Business Models and Innovative Value Chains Accelerate the Transformation of Electric Vehicles?

Limited resources, climate change and urban mobility lead to a changed mobility behavior in population. Automobile manufacturers are responding to these new challenges by developing electric vehicles that have already reached a high technical level. Ever higher ranges and high reliability show that electric vehicles are comparable to vehicles with internal combustion engines. Nevertheless, manufacturers are failing in selling these vehicles in sufficient numbers without substantial subsidies from local states. Therefore, companies are forced to reconsider and develop their business models because existing business model approaches do not sufficiently cover the requirements for the business of electromobility. Sustainable business models are a promising solution, as they consider economic aspects as well as elements of environmental friendliness and social aspects and are therefore a good basis for electromobility. For a successful sustainable business model for electromobility also a comprehensive ecosystem with all necessary stakeholders of the various stages of the value chains is needed and forms the basis for a newly designed framework. However, the framework can not only be used for business models for electric vehicles but can also be used for other components of electromobility which has been examined in a case study with charging stations to illustrate the applicability.