The Impact of Subsidies and Charging Facilities on Demand for Electric Vehicles in China

Abstract

The Chinese government has announced a trial programme to provide for private purchase of new battery-operated electric vehicles (EVs) and for plug-in hybrids in five cities. We investigate the potential impact of these subsidies and charging facilities on demand for EVs, using data from a survey of potential car buyers in China. Building on the understanding of factors and incentives that would likely encourage households to adopt EVs would help to improve policy interventions. Data collection is based on experimental design and stated choice methods through an Internet survey. Choice alternatives include a conventional gasoline, a plug-in hybrid and a pure electrical vehicle. In addition to subsidy and charging facilities, we also investigate the impact of common vehicle attributes such as purchase price, cruising range, refuelling time and the socio-demographic effect. Applying a multinomial logit (MNL) model, we find that subsidies would significantly encourage households to choose a plug-in hybrid or an EV. Compared to pure EVs, people in China are more willing to accept plug-in hybrids at present. Compared to the price factors, charging facilities are less of a concern when households consider the adoption of an EV. Willingness-to-pay and market share simulation are computed based on the estimated parameters for further analysis.

Influence of Demographics on Consumer Preferences for Alternative Fuel Vehicles: A Review of Choice Modelling Studies and a Study in Portugal

“…Studies developed in North America [5,6,16,26,37,44,83,87] and Europe [21,23,46,77,78,95] reported that younger consumers are more willing to buy greener vehicles (with the exception of [53]). On the other hand, Asian studies, with the exception of [58], found that older consumers have higher propensity to buy AFVs [19,59,61,88]. Therefore, the summarized results are consistent with hypothesis H2.…”

“…Jensen et al [86] no. children Liu and Cirillo [87] Ma et al [88] region Sheldon et al [26] Smith et al [89] Byun et al [90] Choi et al [91] Costa et al [92] Ferguson et al [93] marital status, dwelling type, dwelling tenure Hahn et al [94] driving experience, housing type, occupation…”

“…Regarding BEVs, while several studies found that men preferred these vehicles less than women [46,57,79,83,88,95], there was only one study that concluded that men preferred BEVs [87]. On the other hand, there were two studies where no interaction between gender and BEVs preferences was found [21,61].…”