Mining Software Repositories to Identify Electric Vehicle Trends: The Case of GitHub

Climate change is a pressing global issue, posing severe threats to societies worldwide, primarily attributed to the accumulation of CO
2
in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels. This accumulation triggers the greenhouse effect, subsequently elevating average global temperatures. As the transportation sector is a substantial contributor to CO2 emissions, a shift from internal combustion engine vehicles to those utilizing clean energy sources is imperative, underscoring the role of Electric Vehicles (EVs) in climate change mitigation. Electric vehicles, powered by an electric motor and equipped with batteries for energy storage, have been the focal point of intensive research and development efforts by academia and industry over the last decade to address associated production and deployment challenges. In this study, we concentrate on the software developed for EVs, using GitHub to gauge the developer community’s interest in EVs in a global and in a country level, explore prevalent programming languages and licenses, and assess the continuity of projects as reflected in the available repositories.