victorian electric vehicle trial mid-term report - Department of Transport

The effectiveness ofthese initiatives has beenmeasured and interpretedto inform future effortsaimed at promotingawareness, understandingand acceptance ofelectric vehicles.7.1 OUTPUTS AND OUTCOMES7.1.1 How has the trial beencommunicated?The project has been communicatedbroadly through three online outlets,all of which have been found to beeffective when assessed againstcomparable benchmarks:1. Website – providing a range ofinformation about the trial2. E-news – monthly news updateswhich also directs users back tothe website3. Discussion board – for usersto discuss their experiencesof the EV trial.From the start of 2011 to the endof June 2012, the Victorian ElectricVehicle Trial website received nearly30,000 visits. The most popular pageswere the ‘what’s happening’ page with4,103 visits, followed by the homepagewith 3,886. The various publicationsmade available through the websitehad been downloaded 1,108 times,with the trial information booklet thataccompanied the trial launch havingbeen downloaded most at 83 times.Over 80 per cent of the 76 householdtrial participants surveyed reported theVictorian Electric Vehicle Trial websiteas being ‘somewhat’ or ‘very helpful’.The trial’s e-news was launched in July2011 and has been published monthlysince that time except for January 2012which was deferred to February due tolikely impact of the holiday season onreadership. With reference to Figure55, the number of subscribers grewmarkedly as a result of the inclusionof an ‘opt-in’ question as part of the2012 household participation surveyand questionnaire, and has held fairlyconstant ever since.Subscription growth42103517 3492 3480 3492 3492 3507 3495 3481 34781741252308441 474 526Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug SepJune 2011 – August 2012OctFigure 55. Victorian Electric Vehicle Trial e-news subscription rates.CREATING A MARKET 113