How far can we get with eco driving tech?

Individual, car-based mobility contributes significantly to worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Driving style accounts for up to 30% of fuel consumption and manufacturers have implemented technologies such as energy-efficient “eco” driving modes to reduce emissions. Here we report evidence from a field experiment with battery-electric vehicles. Two behavioral interventions, changing the mode's default to on and informing drivers about the frequency of other people's usage of the mode, i.e. providing a descriptive social norm, successfully increased eco mode usage. However, the cars' acceleration and energy consumption remained unaffected due to a behavioral rebound, and were instead predicted by a situational factor, trip distance. While behavioral interventions proved effective, the results suggest that technological interventions aiming to reduce the environmental impacts might focus more strongly on alterations of situational rather than dispositional factors of people or cars.