Revised Formal Report Proposal
To: Dr. Paterson
From: Enguang Shi
Date: October 14, 2020
Subject: Proposal for Promoting EVCARD’s Electric Vehicles Rental Service to Users who Own Cars in Shanghai.
Introduction:
EVCARD is an electric vehicle car-sharing project of New Energy Vehicle Operation and Service Co., LTD in Shanghai International Motor City. The user of this service can reserve the vehicle by himself at any time, and borrow and return the vehicle at any return site. Until now, EVCARD has been the largest and most competitive electric car rental company in China. As shown on the EVCARD app page, it is mentioned that EVCARD services help to reduce carbon emissions. EVCARD’s emissions-reduction effect is reflected in its substitution effect for ordinary petrol-powered cars. However, it should be paid attention that a large percentage of EVCARD users do not have a car at home. These households have more carbon emissions from transport than before.
Electric cars can produce carbon emissions. But instead of being emitted into the air during driving, carbon emissions are produced by burning coal in the process of producing the electricity it uses. Although hydrogen, wind, and nuclear power have accounted for an increasing proportion of China’s electricity generation in recent years, about 80% of its electricity is still generated by thermal power.
Statement of Problem:
It is argued that EVCARD has a stronger substitution effect for the travel of families without vehicles than families which own vehicles, EVCARD increases carbon emissions more than it reduces them. By the calculation, EVCARD service in Shanghai would cause 18,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent being emitted every year compared to not having this service, which contributes to 0.16% of the annual carbon emissions generated by transportation in Shanghai.
Proposed Solution:
One possible solution is to promote the convenience of EVCARD for families with cars. Firstly, If there is a need for a one-way trip, such as going to the airport, driving to work in the morning but not planning to drive because you have to drink alcohol in the evening, EVCARD is indeed a more convenient option in this case. In addition, if there is an EVCARD charging point in a parking lot, you can be exempted from the parking fee for parking in the EVCARD dedicated parking space. EVCARD also does not require additional car maintenance costs, for people who do not have a high demand for driving, EVCARD is more cost-effective. Finally, in Shanghai, certain kinds of licenses are banned from entering aerial roads in downtown. However, all of the EVCARD’s vehicles are not banned. If EVCARD wants to reduce overall carbon emissions, it should pay more attention to promoting the convenience of EVCARD for those families with cars.
Scope:
To assess the feasibility of promoting EVCARD services for families with cars. I plan to pursue these inquiries:
- What percentage of car-owning households have such needs?
- How many of these families have heard of or used EVCARD?
- Where did these families see information about EVCARD?
- Why would a family with a car consider using/not using EVCARD?
- For families with cars who do not know EVCARD, will they consider using EVCARD if they are informed of the above benefits?
- Will these families use EVCARD more than their own car for environmental reasons?
- What is the content of the current advertisements of EVCARD company?
- Where does the EVCARD company always put their advertisements?
Methods:
The main secondary data in my research comes from academic journals or papers on marketing and advertising. For the primary data, I will join the car owners WeChat group to issue online questionnaires.
My Qualifications:
The graduation thesis of my last undergraduate degree was about EVCARD service. My thesis is supervised by Dr. Shanxia Sun, who is an expert in econometrics and the research field of the new energy industry. In this paper, I analyzed and calculated a large number of sample data about EVCARD user behavior, and estimated the impact of EVCARD on Carbon emissions in Shanghai. Finally, Dr. Sun agreed with my conclusion that EVCARD will lead to the increase of carbon emissions in Shanghai and other parts of the paper. I can use some of the research samples in my paper. I also learned marketing courses in my previous degree. In addition, I live in Jiading District, Shanghai, which is where Shanghai Motor City and EVCARD headquarters are located. I have a lot of EVCARD borrow and return points and users around me, so it’s convenient to do extra research on them.
Conclusion:
For the urban environment, reducing carbon emissions will slow the greenhouse effect and improve air quality. For EVCARD, increasing users who own vehicles not only offers more profit opportunities but also reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Providing a contribution to reducing emissions is also more likely for EVCARD to receive state funding and social support.
Progress Report with Surveys
Dr. Erika Paterson, ENGL 301 99A Instructor
From: Enguang Shi, ENGL 301 99A Student
Date: November 14, 2020
Subject: Progress Report on Formal Report
As requested, this is a formal report summary regarding promoting EVCARD’s electric vehicle rental service to users who own cars in shanghai. Please find my online survey questions attached.
Audience
Chunhua Huang: Chief Marketing Officer of Global Car Sharing
Purpose
The purpose of this report is to assess the feasibility of promoting EVCARD services for families with cars and provide a detailed solution, so as to decrease the emission caused by EVCARD’s services.
Significance
For the urban environment, reducing carbon emissions will slow the greenhouse effect and improve air quality. For EVCARD, increasing users who own vehicles not only offers more profit opportunities but also reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Providing a contribution to reducing emissions is also more likely for EVCARD to receive state funding and social support.
Research Plan
- Identify potential promotion aspects of using EVCARD services rather than driving private cars.
- Compose and issue an online questionnaire to assess the acceptability of these potential promotion aspects.
- Analyze the primary data collected by the online questionnaire to identify the promotion content.
- Identify the source of secondary data to collect the current marketing scheme and practicable marketing strategies
- Detail the possible marketing plan by analyzing both the primary data and the secondary data.
Writing Schedule
- Nov 15th: Start the primary data resource collection
- Nov 20th: Start the secondary data resource collection
- Nov 25th: Begin report draft
- Nov 28th: Revise the report draft
- Dec 1st: Share report draft on the team forum
- Dec 10th: Revise the report draft based on the suggestion from peer review
- Dec 15th: Final revision on the report
- Dec 17th: Post the final report on the team forum
Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions or concerns about the progress report.