Development and evaluation of a range anxiety-reducing business model for connected full electric vehicles

This thesis develops and evaluates a business model for connected full electric vehicles (FEV) for the European market. Despite a promoting political environment, various barriers have thus far prevented the FEV from becoming a mass-market vehicle. Besides cost, the most noteworthy of these barriers is represented by range anxiety, a product of FEVs’ limited range, lacking availability of charging infrastructure, and long recharging times. Connected FEVs, which maintain a constant connection to the surrounding infrastructure, appear to be a promising element to overcome drivers’ range anxiety. Yet their successful application requires a well functioning FEV ecosystem which can only be created through the collaboration of various stakeholders such as original equipment manufacturers (OEM), first tier suppliers (FTS), charging infrastructure and service providers (CISP), utilities, communication enablers, and governments. This thesis explores and evaluates how a business model, jointly created by these stakeholders, could look like, i.e. how stakeholders could collaborate in the design of products, services, infrastructure, and advanced mobility management, to meet drivers with a sensible value proposition that is at least equivalent to that of internal combustion engine (ICE) cars. It suggests that this value proposition will be an end-2-end package provided by CISPs or OEMs that comprises mobility packages (incl. pay per mile plans, battery leasing, charging and battery swapping (BS) infrastructure) and FEVs equipped with an on-board unit (OBU) combined with additional services targeted at range anxiety reduction. From a theoretical point of view the thesis answers the question which business model framework is suitable for the development of a holistic, i.e. all stakeholder-comprising business model for connected FEVs and defines such a business model. In doing so the thesis provides the first comprehensive business model related research findings on connected FEVs, as prior works focused on the much less complex scenario featuring only “offline” FEVs.

Do police reduce crime? Estimates using the allocation of police forces after a terrorist attack

An important challenge in the crime literature is to isolate causal effects of police on crime. Following a terrorist attack on the main Jewish center in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in July 1994, all Jewish institutions (including schools, synagogues, and clubs) were given 24-hour police protection. Thus, this hideous event induced a geographical allocation of police forces that can be presumed to be exogenous in a crime regression. Using data on the location of car thefts before and after the terrorist attack, we find a large deterrent effect of observable police presence on crime. The effect is local, with little or no appreciable impact outside the narrow area in which the police are deployed.

Aligning sustainability and corporate strategies: the case of hybrid-electric vehicles and Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles

Este estudo analisa a integração da sustentabilidade ambiental na estratégia das empresas no contexto da indústria automobilística. A implementação de estratégias de sustentabilidade e o desenvolvimento de veículos híbrido-elétricos são investigados com referência ao caso de um ator principal na indústria. Entre as aplicações de mobilidade eléctrica, que irá aumentar a presença no mercado nos próximos anos devido às regulamentações rigorosas e as preferências dos clientes, a pesquisa está focada em veículos híbrido-elétricos. As estratégias de sustentabilidade das grandes fabricantes de automóveis e as implicações subsequentes em termos de desenvolvimento de produtos, com uma atenção especial aos veículos elétricos híbridos, foram analisados através de dados secundários. Além disso, os dados primários foram coletados sobre a estratégia de sustentabilidade de um ator importante na indústria e usados para realizar um estudo de caso. A análise incidiu sobre os fatores críticos e os aspectos que têm impacto sobre as estratégias de sustentabilidade, que visam reduzir o impacto ambiental da indústria automobilística, e sobre o desenvolvimento de veículos híbridos. A análise dos dados mostrou que a Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) teve uma ênfase menor na mobilidade eléctrica em termos de relatórios de sustentabilidade. A conclusão apresenta uma avaliação da estratégia corporativa da FCA, em termos de sustentabilidade ambiental, e apresenta um quadro para o desenvolvimento de veículos híbridos com quatro abordagens diferentes que têm impacto sobre a estratégia de sustentabilidade de uma montadora.

Geographical externalities and the Pacifying Police Units Program in Rio de Janeiro

The paper quantifies the effects on violence and police activity of the Pacifying Police Unit program (UPP) in Rio de Janeiro and the possible geographical spillovers caused by this policy. This program consists of taking selected shantytowns controlled by criminals organizations back to the State. The strategy of the policy is to dislodge the criminals and then settle a permanent community-oriented police station in the slum. The installation of police units in these slums can generate geographical spillover effects to other regions of the State of Rio de Janeiro. We use the interrupted time series approach proposed by Gonzalez-Navarro (2013) to address effects of a police when there is contagion of the control group and we find that criminal outcomes decrease in areas of UPP and in areas near treated regions. Furthermore, we build a model which allows to perform counterfactuals of this policy and to estimate causal effects in other areas of the State of Rio de Janeiro outside the city.