Barriers to widespread adoption of electric vehicles: An analysis of consumer attitudes and perceptions
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify potential socio-technical barriers to consumer adoption of EVs and determine if sustainability issues influence consumer decision to purchase an EV, and provide valuable insights into preferences and perceptions of technology enthusiasts; individuals highly connected to technology development and better equipped to sort out the many differences between EVs and CVs.
About: This article is published in Energy Policy.The article was published on 2012-09-01. It has received 1207 citations till now.
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TL;DR: In this paper, an integrated choice and latent variable model is used to explicitly measure the perceived advantages in electric vehicles over the conventional internal combustion engine vehicles, and the results show higher probability of adopting electric vehicles for Gen Y, compared to Gen X and after them.
Abstract: Relative advantage, or the degree to which a new technology is perceived to be better than an existing technology which is being replaced, has a significant impact on individuals’ decisions on when, how and to what extent to adopt. An integrated choice and latent variable model is used, in this paper, to explicitly measure the perceived advantages in electric vehicles over the conventional internal combustion engine vehicles. The analysed data is obtained from a stated preference survey including 1076 residents in New South Wales, Australia. According to the results, the latent component of the model disentangles the perceived advantages across three dimensions of vehicle design, impact on the environment, and safety. These latent variables are interacted with price, driving range and body type, respectively, to capture the impact of perception on preference. The developed model is then used to examine the effectiveness of different support schemes on Millennials (Gen Y), the generation before them (Gen X) and after them (Gen Z). The results show higher probability of adopting electric vehicles for Gen Y, compared to Gen X and Z. Gen Y is found to be the least sensitive cohort to purchase price, and Gen X to be the most sensitive cohort to this attribute. People are more sensitive to incentives for the initial price compared to ongoing incentives for operating costs. Also, offering financial incentives to consumers as a rebate on the purchase price is more effective than allocating the same incentive to manufacturers to reduce the purchase price.
40 citations
Cites background from "Barriers to widespread adoption of ..."
...Noteworthy to mention that Egbue and Long (2012) also considered technical features, environmental impacts, and safety to study individuals perception towards EV....
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...Our definition of perceived advantage is close to what Egbue and Long (2012), or what Zhang et al. (2011b) referred to as “awareness” in their study....
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...…(Høyer, 2008) in early 1990s, and the energy crisis in 1970s, which escalated political energy security and non-renewable energy reliance debates (Egbue and Long, 2012), the transport sector, as a major oil consumer and greenhouse gas emitter, has experienced an unprecedented global urge for…...
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TL;DR: Wang et al. as discussed by the authors examined the determinants of Chinese citizens' intentions to purchase electric vehicles using a nationwide survey with 1080 respondents in China and found that if Chinese citizens have a wide social network and if they know someone who already owns an EV, their intention to purchase an EV is very high.
40 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the impact of government subsidies on the optimal production and pricing decisions of an auto manufacturer who could produce both EVs and conventional vehicles, and characterized whether/under what conditions the manufacturer's decision to offer EV products under government subsidy, whilst increasing its profits.
Abstract: In order to address challenges in the sustainable development of transportation, economy, and environment, governments of China and conventional automobile manufacturers are extremely concerned about the development of the electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing industry and market. However, owing to the limitations of EVs and the government economic policies on decreasing subsidies in China, many manufacturers are worried about entering the EV market. Given the low consumer preference for EVs, using a leader-follower Stackelberg game model, we investigate the impact of government a subsidy on the optimal production and pricing decisions of an auto manufacturer who could produce both EVs and conventional vehicles. We characterize whether/under what conditions the manufacturer’s decision to offer EV products under government subsidy, whilst increasing its profits (a win-win situation). On the policy side, we delineate how government a subsidy can be set to realize the inherent economic, environmental, and social benefits of EV production (the triple win of EV production). We further investigate the impact of EV manufacturing- and society-related factors on the balance among manufacturer profits, environmental impact and social welfare. This study also finds that the adoption of EVs is not bound to be beneficial for the environment.
40 citations
TL;DR: Zhang et al. as discussed by the authors analyzed whether the relationships among past experience, perceived return, perceived risk, and intention to adopt battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are different because of household factors.
Abstract: The scope of this study was to analyze whether the relationships among past experience, perceived return, perceived risk, and intention to adopt battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are different because of household factors. Analysis was conducted by a multi-group structural equation model, and data were taken from 940 consumers in six cities in Jiangsu Province. Results show that the adopting intention is positively affected by perceived return, but negatively affected by perceived risk; past experience positively affects perceived return and adopting intention, but negatively affects perceived risk. Importantly, some of the above effects differ in strength for consumers in households characterized by different population, type of location, income, vehicle ownership, and accessibility to plug-in vehicles at home. Finally, implications for how these results can be applied to increase the adopting intention of BEVs are discussed.
40 citations
Cites background from "Barriers to widespread adoption of ..."
...As an emerging technology product, there may be some safety problems existed in BEVs (Egbue and Long 2012)....
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TL;DR: This review investigates the factors that influence both adoption and maintenance, and presents a classification of environmental behaviors in terms of the activities, costs, and effort required for both adopted and maintenance.
Abstract: Policy makers draw on behavioral research to design interventions that promote the
voluntary adoption of environmental behavior in societies. Many environmental behaviors
will only be effective if they are maintained over the long-term. In the context of climate
change and concerns about future water security, behaviors that involve reducing energy
consumption and improving water qualitymust be continued indefinitely tomitigate global
warming and preserve scarce resources. Previous reviews of environmental behavior
have focused exclusively on factors related to adoption. This review investigates the
factors that influence both adoption and maintenance, and presents a classification
of environmental behaviors in terms of the activities, costs, and effort required for
both adoption and maintenance. Three categories of behavior are suggested. One-off
behaviors involve performing an activity once, such as purchasing an energy efficient
washing machine, or signing a petition. Continuous behaviors involve the performance of
the same set of behaviors for adoption and for maintenance, such as curbside recycling.
Dynamic behaviors involve the performance of different behaviors for adoption and
maintenance, such as revegetation. Behaviors can also be classified into four categories
related to cost and effort: those that involve little cost and effort for adoption and
maintenance, those that involve moderate cost and effort for adoption and maintenance,
those that involve a high cost or effort for adoption and less for maintenance, and those
that involve less cost or effort for adoption and a higher amount for maintenance. In order
to design interventions that last, policy makers should consider the factors that influence
the maintenance as well as the adoption of environmental behaviors.
40 citations
Cites background from "Barriers to widespread adoption of ..."
...Numerous factors are related to the adoption and use of electric, hybrid, and alternative fuel vehicles, such as attitudes (Egbue and Long, 2012; Barbarossa et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2016), self-efficacy (Bockarjova and Steg, 2014; Langbroek et al., 2016), moral norms (e.g., Jansson et al., 2011),…...
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References
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TL;DR: Ajzen, 1985, 1987, this article reviewed the theory of planned behavior and some unresolved issues and concluded that the theory is well supported by empirical evidence and that intention to perform behaviors of different kinds can be predicted with high accuracy from attitudes toward the behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control; and these intentions, together with perceptions of behavioral control, account for considerable variance in actual behavior.
65,095 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors report results of two questionnaire studies aimed at examining various motives for car use, and investigate individual differences in the relative importance of the three categories of motives were investigated.
Abstract: This paper reports results of two questionnaire studies aimed at examining various motives for car use. In the first study, a random selection of 185 respondents who possess a driving licence were interviewed. Respondents were recruited from the cities of Groningen and Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The sample of the second study comprised a random selection of 113 commuters who regularly travelled during rush hours in and around Rotterdam, a region in the west of the Netherlands. First, it was examined which categories of car use motives may be distinguished. As proposed by Dittmar’s (1992) [The social psychology of material possessions: to have is to be. Havester Wheatsheaf, Hemel Hempstead, UK; St. Martin’s Press, New York] model on the meaning of material possessions, results from both studies revealed that car use not only fulfils instrumental functions, but also important symbolic and affective functions. Second, it was studied to what extent these different motives are related to the level of car use. From the results of study 2, it appeared that commuter car use was most strongly related to symbolic and affective motives, and not to instrumental motives. Third, individual differences in the relative importance of the three categories of motives were investigated. In both studies, most group differences were found in the evaluation of the symbolic and affective motives (and not the instrumental ones). Especially frequent drivers, respondents with a positive car attitude, male and younger respondents valued these non-instrumental motives for car use. These results suggest that policy makers should not exclusively focus on instrumental motives for car use, but they should consider the many social and affective motives as well.
1,064 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the relative efficacy of state sales tax waivers, income tax credits and non-tax incentives for hybrid-electric vehicle adoption in the United States has been studied and shown that the type of tax incentive offered is as important as the value of the tax incentive.
Abstract: Federal, state and local governments use a variety of incentives to induce consumer adoption of hybrid-electric vehicles. We study the relative efficacy of state sales tax waivers, income tax credits and non-tax incentives and find that the type of tax incentive offered is as important as the value of the tax incentive. Conditional on value, we find that sales tax waivers are associated a seven-fold greater increase in hybrid sales than income tax credits. In addition, we estimate the extent to which consumer adoption of hybrid-electric vehicles (HEV) in the United States from 2000-2006 can be attributed to government incentives, changing gasoline prices, or consumer preferences for environmental quality or energy security. After controlling for model specific state and time trends, we find that rising gasoline prices are associated with higher hybrid sales, although the effect operates entirely through sales of the hybrid models with the highest fuel economy. In total, we find that tax incentives, rising gasoline prices and social preferences are associated with 6, 27 and 36 percent of high economy hybrid sales from 2000-2006.
595 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore both the promise and the possible pitfalls of the plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) concept, focusing first on its definition and then on its technical state-of-the-art.
551 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a full year of high-resolution driving data from 484 instrumented gasoline vehicles in the US is used to analyze daily driving patterns, and from those infer the range requirements of electric vehicles (EVs).
Abstract: One full year of high-resolution driving data from 484 instrumented gasoline vehicles in the US is used to analyze daily driving patterns, and from those infer the range requirements of electric vehicles (EVs). We conservatively assume that EV drivers would not change their current gasoline-fueled driving patterns and that they would charge only once daily, typically at home overnight. Next, the market is segmented into those drivers for whom a limited-range vehicle would meet every day’s range need, and those who could meet their daily range need only if they make adaptations on some days. Adaptations, for example, could mean they have to either recharge during the day, borrow a liquid-fueled vehicle, or save some errands for the subsequent day. From this analysis, with the stated assumptions, we infer the potential market share for limited-range vehicles. For example, we find that 9% of the vehicles in the sample never exceeded 100 miles in one day, and 21% never exceeded 150 miles in one day. These drivers presumably could substitute a limited-range vehicle, like electric vehicles now on the market, for their current gasoline vehicle without any adaptation in their driving at all. For drivers who are willing to make adaptations on 2 days a year, the same 100 mile range EV would meet the needs of 17% of drivers, and if they are willing to adapt every other month (six times a year), it would work for 32% of drivers. Thus, it appears that even modest electric vehicles with today’s limited battery range, if marketed correctly to segments with appropriate driving behavior, comprise a large enough market for substantial vehicle sales. An additional analysis examines driving versus parking by time of day. On the average weekday at 5 pm, only 15% of the vehicles in the sample are on the road; at no time during the year are fewer than 75% of vehicles parked. Also, because the return trip home is widely spread in time, even if all cars plug in and begin charging immediately when they arrive home and park, the increased demand on the electric system is less problematic than prior analyses have suggested.
541 citations