Shared Electric Mobility in Towns and Smaller Settlements: SEMiTaSS

SEMiTaSS will conduct in-depth, qualitative research into 3-4 rural examples of electric car clubs and potentially other SEM models at different stages of development to understand how they can become widely used over time. The two main research objectives are as follows:

1. Understand how SEM practices emerge, evolve and become embedded at community level through in-depth engagement with those involved in existing and emerging SEM services and at least one co-produced, year-long trial.
2. Analyse SEM services in English towns and villages with populations of up to ~40,000; distinguish their adoption into everyday practices and the materials, skills and meanings of SEM policy, operation and use in these communities, benchmarking them against their urban counterparts.

SEMiTaSS will apply social practice theories (SPT) to qualitatively analyse established, recently introduced and future SEM examples in English towns and villages, where SEM users may also be local policymakers and providers of SEM. Using SPT builds on prior research into shared mobility, which will be subject to a scoping review. The aim of this and other academic outputs will be to enrich the diverse and rapidly evolving knowledge base of changing environmental practices, norms, and success factors in relation to SEM and fill an identified gap in rural mobility research.

Building on the QUISEM project, SEMiTaSS also aims to identify further quantitative indicators of viability and impact specific to smaller settlements, such as changes to multiple car ownership. It will continue to develop the dashboard to support communities and local policymakers in visualising and benchmarking these place-specific benefits. 

SEMiTaSS is designed to bring together local government policymakers, SEM operators, and users and involve them directly in the research into how SEM becomes integrated into their communities, co-producing at least one SEM trial. The project will provide and help practitioners and users disseminate outputs to demonstrate the viability and success factors of SEM in town and village communities. This knowledge will benefit local authorities who have declared climate emergencies, shared mobility operators who can expand into new markets, and rural residents who want more sustainable and community-focused transport options and assets. The outputs will also be designed so that local communities and policymakers can engage with the EV industry (building on the ZEV mandate), property developers and rural employers who can help them invest and scale the sharing service ecosystem in these rural communities.