Factors Influencing Adoption Intention for Electric Vehicles under a Subsidy Deduction: From Different City-Level Perspectives

Abstract

The popularization of electric vehicles (EVs) is beneficial to the sustainable development of energy and the environment. China’s promotion and development strategy for EVs will serve as a model for other countries. EV ownership has a significant difference between first/second-tier (FST) cities and third/fourth-tier (TFT) cities and there is a huge growth potential for the EV market in those TFT cities. This paper aims to explore the factors influencing the adoption intentions for EVs in FST and TFT cities under a subsidy deduction and to make a comparative analysis of their regional heterogeneity. Based on the extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) model, the structural equation model is used to compare the factors affecting the adoption intention for EVs of 858 respondents in China. The results show that attitude, subjective norms, novelty seeking, non-financial incentive, product cognition, and environmental concerns are positively related to intention in FST and TFT cities; however, infrastructure development only has a positive significant impact in the TFT cities. Additionally, the subsidy deduction has a more negative impact on the adoption intentions in FST cities. Our findings provide vital insights for formulating government regulations and marketing strategies depending on the diverse sizes and attributes of Chinese cities.

The Market Disruption Path of Green-Oriented Trajectory-Transformed Technology Innovation: A Study of Consumer Lifestyles during the “Chasm” in China’s Electric Vehicle Market

“…For Hypothesis 4, the empirical results show that the positive effect of environmental consciousness on the purchase intention of GTTT products is significant (Table 7), and Hypothesis 4 is supported, which indicates that consumers with a stronger environmental consciousness are more likely to purchase GTTT products. Environmental consciousness is one of the important factors influencing consumers to purchase new green products [47][48][49], and Zhang et al [9] found that environmental consciousness significantly and positively influenced the purchase intention of electric vehicles.…”

“…Control variables: In accordance with related studies [66,67], we controlled for variables such as gender, age, level of education, household size, number of children, level of income, and occupation. In addition, the presence or absence of local licensing policies, the presence or absence of local subsidy policies [68], and the sizes of the individual influence of licensing subsidies can also impact the decision of consumers in China to purchase electric vehicles [9,69]; therefore, these variables were also included as control variables in this paper.…”

“…The literature has shown that purchase intention is the most reliable tool for measuring purchasing behavior and that it can effectively predict consumer demand, serving as the foundation for the development of market strategies [7]. To date, for the study of factors influencing consumers' purchase intention regarding new products, the rational person model, which is based on the economic perspective, and the attitude behavior model, which is based on the social psychology perspective, have been widely influential [8][9][10]. However, these models involve only individual consumer factors and ignore the key situational fact that people have a social nature; as such, these models rarely consider the influence of other people in society on consumers [11,12].…”

Towards Sustainable Transport in the Moroccan Context: The Key Determinants of Electric Cars Adoption Intention

“…Attitude toward using ECs was measured using three items from [70]. Finally, ECs adoption intention was assessed using four items [71,72]. These measurement scales were selected based on their utility and relevance to ensure the comprehensiveness and accuracy of our research findings (Appendix A).…”

Analysis of Consumer Behavior towards Electric Vehicles: Intentions, Concerns, and Policies

“…TAM's goal is to unravel the factors that influence consumers' adoption of new technologies. The study by [12] was conducted using a variety of methods to identify factors that facilitate or compel human adoption of SDs, and to identify consumer adoption [13], purchase [14], and usage [15] intentions. Consumers' intention to use electric and hybrid vehicles is related to how well factors such as technology perception, price, availability, and information are controlled.…”