Potential Early Adopters of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles in Spain—Towards a Customer Profile

Abstract

The adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) by consumers is regarded as a key strategic goal for the reduction in transport-related air pollution levels. Although sales of EVs continue to rise year on year, generally, the attainment of the strategic goals set by various governments for the adoption of EVs remains a distant target. The purpose of this study is to identify the customer profile of early adopters of EVs in Spain: one of Europe’s largest economies, yet the country with the lowest uptake of EVs at present. The analysis presented here is based on an online survey of 404 potential consumers of EVs in Spain. A cluster analysis of the data was performed based on a set of three socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age, and income), one psychographic (green moral obligation—GMO) and two EV attributes (price and driving range). The results of this analysis showed that there exist two segments with respect to higher or lower customer intentions related to the adoption of EVs. These findings represent a theoretical contribution to current understanding of the customer profile of adopters of EVs and will contribute to the development of communication and retail strategies aimed at customers fitting the profile of early adopters of new technologies.

Profiling Spanish Prospective Buyers of Electric Vehicles Based on Demographics

“…Although previous studies have analysed the relevance of demographic characteristics of prospective buyers of EVs [10,11,33], the findings of this literature are far from unanimous. Previous studies assert that demographic factors have a positive impact on both pro-environmental behaviour (e.g., [12,54] and in product innovation adoption [55].…”

“…To better understand the phenomenon, they used cluster analysis. Moreover, a cluster analysis is needed to uncover the similarity of citizens in terms of EV preferences [33]. Socio-demographic characteristics should be considered together.…”

“…Research has shown that EV price and income are essential adoption factors (see [33], for a review). However, a study conducted by [80] in Norway suggested that income is a less prominent indicator when compared with gender, age, and education.…”

“…The higher educational level of these people enables them to learn about smart mobility more quickly [31]. Previous research shows that income and social status tend to influence the product's adoption positively [32][33][34][35]. Moreover, [13] (p. 18) argues "high-income consumers are likely to be more environmentally conscious because consumers with higher income can bear more".…”

Measuring the equity impacts of government subsidies for electric vehicles

“…Similar results were obtained by Kumar and Alok [24], in their research, after an extensive overview of the literature, the team identified that income, higher level of education and multiple car ownership are all key elements that impact upon EV purchase. Others [25,26] have reported that young women with high income are more prone to purchase an EV. Opposite results are revealed by Sovacool et al [27], suggesting that men, with higher levels of education, having full-time employment, especially working in civil societies and academia, and below middle age (30e45), are the most likely to purchase an EV.…”