A Cost Efficiency Analysis for Private Vehicles: Determinants for Households’ Choices of Vehicles Using a Household-Level Commute Data Approach

In attempts to evaluate the different levels of fuel efficiencies across different types of vehicles, this paper uses a household-level commute dataset to look at the different determinants for a household owning an efficient vehicle. Employing both an OLS and a Probit model, the empirical results illustrate that the current number of vehicles and the vehicle’s purchasing price are the attributes that most significantly affect the household’s probability to own an efficient vehicle. A similar analysis is adopted for the case of electric vehicles as well. A further analysis includes calculations for different total costs of owning vehicles with different fuel economies. The results of these calculations suggest that while the more efficient vehicle is more expensive to own at first, its benefits will outweigh its costs as the vehicle is utilized more