Adoption of Electric Vehicle Fleet Management Technologies: A socio-technical issue?

Abstract

The adoption of electric vehicle technology is a trend of rapid and inexorable expansion worldwide in the face of the challenges of climate change and other economic impacts of the use of fossil fuels. This work aims to deepen the understanding of the phenomenon of the adoption of technologies for fleet management systems for electric vehicles in the industrial and commercial sector of Chile; based on a conceptual approach made up of 4 approaches: fleet management, socio-technical systems, technological adoption and incremental innovation. It seeks to understand the process of agency and use of socio-technical devices linked to the adoption of electric vehicle fleet management technologies by product and service distribution companies. The information was collected through semi-structured interviews with key informants made up of electric vehicle fleet managers, representatives of electric vehicle manufacturer brands, as well as companies developing fleet management solutions. The theoretical-conceptual perspective adopted, as well as the methodology used in this article, allows us to conclude in a preliminary way that a process of technological adoption is a complex and systemic, multi-agent and multi-level process. It is recommended to deepen research on technology adoption processes with conceptual and methodological models, in order to strengthen their understanding, as well as the improvement of their own management.